tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65979665723858722082018-10-29T09:01:51.201-04:00I DIG JAZZA jazz reporter's notebook...Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.comBlogger587125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-59842632722465885302018-10-29T09:01:00.000-04:002018-10-29T09:01:51.172-04:00PARADISE JAZZ SERIES OPENS WITH THE DUO CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE & DIANNE REEVES, PLUS TIA FULLER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.njpac.org/assets/img/687x520-Christian-McBride-Dianne-Reeves-1a1dffce26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="687" height="242" src="https://www.njpac.org/assets/img/687x520-Christian-McBride-Dianne-Reeves-1a1dffce26.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christian McBride and Dianne Reeves</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 2018-2019 Paradise Jazz Series opened </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Friday evening at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall with a double bill that featured a duet from Grammy winner’s bassist Christian McBride and vocalists Dianne Reeves, and saxophonist Tia Fuller. Friday’s set was the second time McBride and Reeves have performed as a duo. From the onset, it was clear McBride and Reeves hadn’t spent much time rehearsing, and they were winging it. McBride and Reeves are master improvisers and performers and the duo was engaging, and the near-capacity audience was thoroughly enthralled by the performance from start to finish. McBride and Reeves have loads of chemistry and a high level of reverence for each other’s respective talent. Reeves spent most of the set scatting, which by the end of the set had become a bit annoying. Reeves undoubtedly has one of the greatest voices in music, and surely a large segment of the audience would’ve preferred she spent the set just singing. To Reeves’s credit, she has the scatting thing down to a science, and she’s arguably one of the best in the game. McBride surprised the audience toward the end of the set when he moved from the bass to the piano. Surprisingly, McBride is a pretty competent piano player, but he shouldn’t harbor any future aspirations of playing piano full-time. McBride and Reeves had the audience hyped for saxophonist Tia Fuller’s set.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://centrum.org/wp-content/uploads/tia-fuller-photo-by-keith-major.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://centrum.org/wp-content/uploads/tia-fuller-photo-by-keith-major.jpg" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="767" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tia Fuller</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was Fuller’s first time at the Paradise Jazz Series. Fuller is no stranger to Detroit. She is one of the stars on Detroit’s Mack Avenue Records, and she has an excellent body of recordings the most current being “Diamond Cut.” Fuller’s set was not one of her best, given the string of memorable performances she’s put on in Detroit over the years, particularly at the Detroit Jazz Festival. Fuller’s playing Friday evening was surprisingly inconsistent in spots and strong in others. She was test-driving a new trio. The new band has yet to gel fully. Fuller called selections from “Diamond Cut” and spent a good amount of time explaining to the audience the album's origins. Fuller’s set was a last-minute inclusion, which might explain why Fuller didn’t show up with her regular bandmates such as drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Mimi Jones, or some of the stars on “Diamond Cut.” The Paradise Jazz goers are experienced jazz-heads. Maybe Fuller wasn’t aware of that and that the series wasn’t the appropriate setting to dry run a new trio.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri light&quot; , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-33339511151703908362018-10-03T09:22:00.000-04:002018-10-03T09:22:00.439-04:00THE JAZZ PIANIST ALEXIS LOMBRE WEEKLY RESIDENCY AT CLIFF BELS IS WORTH CHECKING OUT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://alexislombre.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/alexis_lombre_outdoor_photo-resized1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" height="212" src="https://alexislombre.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/alexis_lombre_outdoor_photo-resized1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Alexis Lombre</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For a year or so, the word circulating around Detroit’s jazz scene is the jazz pianist Alexis Lombre is a serious talent, and after she gains more experience as a session leader and as a bandleader she could possibly fill the void in Detroit’s jazz community left by the death of the great jazz pianist and educator Geri Allen. That’s a tall order for Lombre to embrace, but Lombre embodies the passion for jazz and she’s certainly skilled. For those not yet familiar with the pianist, Lombre is a native Chicagoan and a senior at the University of Michigan. She’s studied under the great jazz pianist Benny Green, and she’s currently under the watchful tutelage of the Grammy-winning jazz bassist Robert Hurst. Lombre has been working professionally for seven years, and she’s earned a weekly residency at Cliff Bells, which was held for many years and made a coveted local gig by the dynamic jazz saxophonist Marcus Elliot. I caught Lombre’s show Tuesday evening, curious to discover if all the praised afforded her was deserved. Lombre performed with a marvelous trio bassist Brian Juarez and drummer David Alverez II, who’s Benny Green’s go-to drummer. Two numbers into the first set, I was sold on Lombre. Lombre open with a few cuts from her recording “Southside Sounds”. The depth of her chops was there for everyone to marvel over as her trio swung through “A Blues In Tyne,” and “Lonely Path,” a number she composed while still in high school. After Lombre got the audience going, the trio performed modernized interpretations of familiar oldies such as “Caravan,” and “Autumn Leaves”. The second set was also dynamic. Lombre invited a few special guests to the bandstand. There was some damn fine blowing from the promising jazz trumpeter Trunino Lowe, who’s building quite a name for himself around Detroit. Lombre never allowed the second set to morph into a jam session. The special guests mix perfectly with the trio’s chemistry. One of the many highlights was the trio’s rebranding of the Weather Report gem “Elegant People” and then seamlessly segueing into Herbie Hancock’s classic “Maiden Voyage”. Lombre is foremost a swinger. She’s also, an adept arranger and composer, and she possesses an abundance of stagecraft. Most importantly you can hear history in her playing as if she invested time pouring over the music of great jazz pianists such as Wynton Kelly, Bobby Timmons, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. The praise Lombre has received in such a short time on Detroit’s jazz scene, I’m convinced, is well deserved.</span></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-43163268609790272302018-09-17T10:42:00.001-04:002018-09-17T10:42:52.582-04:00AT 89, JAZZ VOCALIST SHEILA JORDAN STILL WORKS A SONG & A CROWD,TOO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJZIrl5l8Yo/W5-3iAF4NrI/AAAAAAAABCM/UQ_n0nIILJUTRRzIUQx6sADgfOKonPiDACLcBGAs/s1600/2003-Sheila-Jordan-LD.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="650" height="245" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJZIrl5l8Yo/W5-3iAF4NrI/AAAAAAAABCM/UQ_n0nIILJUTRRzIUQx6sADgfOKonPiDACLcBGAs/s320/2003-Sheila-Jordan-LD.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheila Jordan</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s a shame the legendary jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan only performs in Detroit every decade or so. When Jordan gets booked in her hometown, however, you can bank on a memorable show. Sunday evening Jordan played two sets at the Willis Show Bar thanks to fellow jazz vocalist Joan Belgrave, who thought it worthwhile to bring Jordan back to Detroit for a two-night run. Belgrave opened for Jordan, and she got the full house sufficiently hyped for Jordan hour-plus set. Jordan is 89 and she still has an&nbsp;excellent&nbsp;voice Plus,&nbsp;she hasn't lost one bit of her stagecraft. She began the 7:00 pm set with “How Deep is the Ocean,” wasting no time wrapping her voice around the audience like an anniversary gift. Jordan was backed by a tight rhythm section bassist Marion Hayden, drummer David Taylor, and pianist Mike Jellick, who Jordan had a ball flirting with throughout the set. Hayden, Taylor, and Jellick aren’t Jordan traveling band, but they played as if they’ve been with the vocalist for years. They performed mostly standards such as “If I Had You,” and “The Touch of Your Kiss,” “Autumn in New York,” and “I Got Rhythm.” There was a goose bump inducing version of Abbey Lincoln’s “Bird Alone.” Jordan dazzled the audience even more with her original “Workshop Blues,” which she encouraged audience participation. For decades now, Jordan’s hallmark has been infusing herself into whatever song she’s singing. It’s her unique brand of improvisation, telling stories in the middle of songs as if the melodies trigger distinct recollections. That’s what the audience enjoyed for nearly two-hours Sunday evening. Jordan kept the scatting to a minimum thankfully. At this late leg of her storied career, Jordan still knows how to work the shit out a song and a crowd, too. As for the Willis Show Bar, it proved to be the perfect venue to showcase such a beautifully seasoned voice. Let’s pray it won’t be another decade before Jordan returns home.</span></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-66146275245359313752018-09-12T11:30:00.001-04:002018-09-12T11:38:12.997-04:00CLEVELAND SAXOPHONIST ERNIE KRIVDA ON HIS NEW ALBUM 'A BRIGHT AND SHINING MOMENT', HIS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS & THE SHORTCOMINGS IN JAZZ EDUCATION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--XNUEuH9BnU/W5kmad6oqyI/AAAAAAAABBk/akOdyWzWqfAIHvENL1Dfc7fCbo2wf0U7QCLcBGAs/s1600/ERNIE%2BKRIVDA.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="474" height="314" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--XNUEuH9BnU/W5kmad6oqyI/AAAAAAAABBk/akOdyWzWqfAIHvENL1Dfc7fCbo2wf0U7QCLcBGAs/s320/ERNIE%2BKRIVDA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ernie Krivda is among a small group of tenor saxophonists after hearing them blow eight measures of a tune, for example, you’re able to identify them. Krivda’s playing is a mix of sophistication and raw horsepower. Those traits are evident on his new release “A Bright And Shining Moment,” an album Krivda made two-decades ago with his then popular band Swing City, but he never released. In fact, he forgot he even made it. Last year, he founded it cleaning out his basement, and after listening to it decided to put it out. The 16 tracks on the album cover a lot of ground swing, bop, and the blues. In his native Cleveland, Krivda is a jazz God with a work history that includes stints with Quincy Jones, Jimmy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy DeFranco, and Sarah Vaughn. As a bandleader, Krivda has populated the planet with a string of hit albums such as “The Alchemist,” “So Nice to Meet You,” “The Glory Strut,” “Blues for Pekar,” and “Requiem for a Jazz Lady.” Being a jazz educator is equally important to Krivda as creating great jazz music. A few weeks back, I Dig Jazz talked with Krivda about “A Bright And Shining Moment,” his humble beginnings as an opening act at the famed Cleveland jazz club The Smiling Dog Saloon, and his perspective on the current state of jazz education.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Congratulations on another wonderful album. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, thank you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I listened to it again last night, and I believe it's the kind of swing that you don't hear a lot of currently. Will you talk about the making of this album? </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My wife told me that the basement was a pigsty and to go clean it. So, as I'm cleaning the basement, I came across this CD. I said, "Oh, I forgot about this." I listened to it, and I said "Wow." I really like this. I said, "Jeez, why did I forget about this?" </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Were the musicians on the album from your Swing City band?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes. Swing City, the band on the CD was put together to teach at Tri-C jazz studies program, which had just started. It wasn't like this was the faculty, and then they put the band together. This band was put together to be the faculty. The program was all about teaching from the standpoint of the old-time mentoring. We all wanted the teachers to be guys that were working musicians because that's the way the young musicians back then learn. It always was for me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I like the spectrum of jazz. If you listen, the music on this album actually combines a lot of different elements. There's like small group swing like you would hear in the 40's. Then there's kind of a West Coast elements that you would listen to in the 50's. It's kind of a combination. I wrote all the charts except two, and six of the tunes are mine. The band was a working band, and we were paid to rehearse by the school. We were doing programs all over town. It was a very unusual situation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, all the music had been recorded. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">How popular did Swing City become?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We were working all the time, and we won local awards, and we did all kinds of programs. A lot of the music comes from some of our concerts. We did a tribute to Gershwin, and we did a tribute to Hoagy Carmichael. So, we were doing all kinds of stuff. We were very prominent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why did you guys split up? Listening to the album, it’s obvious it was a unique band with loads of chemistry. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A guy that was very instrumental in putting this whole thing together was a guy named Max Dehn, a young guy who went to school in Michigan. Well, he's not a young guy now, but he was a young guy back then. He came in, and he wanted to do this. And he had a lot of experience getting grants for nonprofits. &nbsp;He had a vision, and I shared his vision. So, we kind of worked together at putting this program together. And then he left. He went to become a lawyer. And so, when he was gone, the support for what we were doing kind of started dissipating.&nbsp;And so, we couldn’t keep the same personnel. Because the personnel came from all over. Like, the bass player was Marion Hayden, who I’m sure you know.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, absolutely.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All right, and the drummer is John Bacon. John Bacon is from Buffalo. And the trombonist was the late, great Gary Carney. He's out of Columbus. So, we had people from all over the place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now that the album is out, do you have any plans to reunite the band for a tour to promote the album?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, I'll be traveling with a quartet playing music from the album. As far as putting together the old Swing City band, this is 20 years later. A couple of people, Marshall Baxter Beckley, who sings “Summertime “on the album passed away. And Gary Carney passed away. And everybody is a little older. We were always playing, continually rehearsing. It would be challenging to capture that again.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you have to do a lot of fine-tuning to the album?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had it remastered. But the only thing I did then was put together the package. You know, liner notes and all that, and I got a digital artist to put the cover together and all that kind of stuff.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I</i><i>t was a great thing that your wife sent you down to the basement to clean up.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know, that's the way things happen sometimes. I don't know if I would have found the recording otherwise. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you recall why you shelved it in the first place?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When it was finally done, that's when everything started changing at the school. I guess I went on and I was doing other projects. I went into a period where I recorded a lot of different music. So, that may have been how I forgot about the recording. Plus, the tension of what was going on at the school at that time, and everything changing, and the band not being together anymore. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">You have a fantastic body of work. How does this album compare to your others? </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's like, I really can't compare. It's like your children.<i> Because that's what it is. </i>So how do you compare your children? Well, they're different, you know. And you could talk about the differences and the different things you were thinking about at this time or that time. But they were all unique to that time, which is probably why I recorded them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>How was Cleveland’s jazz scene back in the day when you were getting started professionally?</i> &nbsp;<i>I heard that Cleveland had a fertile scene back then. </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, it did. It was the 60's, and of course at that time jazz was a relatively popular form, and a lot of cities had good jazz scenes. Cleveland had a good jazz scene the location of which was in a kind of the middle of a circle of a bunch of other great jazz scenes. So like, Detroit, for example. Detroit was just a couple of hours away, and Detroit musicians always used to come down and play. I knew saxophonist Larry Smith. You know Larry?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Oh yes, Larry is one of the significant cats in Detroit. He has been for decades</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, I knew Larry since 1950. You know, he was down here playing with Eddie Bachus. That's the first time I met him. And I got a great tenor man named Weasel Parker, who you probably don't know because he was in Detroit with the Basie Band. Then he came down here.&nbsp;Joe Alexander, a great tenor player, used to spend time in Cleveland and go back and forth to Detroit. Then you have over to the east, you have Pittsburgh, which is a great jazz town, especially then. And Buffalo. And down south, Columbus. All these cities are just like hours away. We were kind of right in the middle, and Indianapolis to the west. You got Cincinnati down there too.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, all these jazz scenes kind of circled Cleveland. And the music always came through, you know, like touring bands. Like, if you were traveling, if you were going east you came through Cleveland. If you were going south, you came through Cleveland. If you're going west, the same thing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, there was a lot of, a variety of music that came through. But I always loved the music of the region. And there was a lot of common threads that bound the musicians together.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was a trendy jazz club in Cleveland that was instrumental to your development because you were able to play with some nationally respected jazz musicians the club booked. And you were able to learn the trade from cats such as Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderly, and Chick Corea. Tell me about that club. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Smiling Dog Saloon. I cannot tell you, describe to you the neighborhood it was in, which is the near west side of Cleveland. You know, if you're going to open a jazz club, this would be the last place you would open a jazz club. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And how it began, it's just an unbelievable thing. But it happened. It was an old converted building. It kind of had some size to it, but it was a dive. It was filthy. It had the smallest dressing room that I've ever seen in my life. But for five years, from 1970 to 1975, every touring jazz act of that period played The Smiling Dog Saloon. Everyone. It is easier to mention the musicians that didn't play there.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">McCoy Tyner played there. Elvin Jones played there. Cannonball Adderley and Stan Getz played there. The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Band played there. The Maynard Ferguson big band played there. Yusef Lateef played there. Eddie Harris played there.&nbsp; Woody Shaw played there. I mean, it was just everybody. Every touring jazz act, six nights a week. And I was very fortunate to get the gig as the house band at The Smiling Dog Saloon. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And the club had this thing where a local group would open for the headliners. So, I had the band that opened for these guys. So, I was able to spend all this time listening, learning, seeing how they performed, the show that they put on, the showbiz aspect of it. And just all kinds of things. I was very fortunate to be able to sit in with many of the bands.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of them became my friends. Cannonball Adderley became a close friend, a mentor of mine. And I had always idolized Cannonball as a young musician. So, I couldn't believe this was happening. Anyway, and this environment, you know, Weather Report played there. It was also the time when composing started to become important. I mean, it was always going on, but it became important. So, I was writing, and I was encouraged to write. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so, in that period, I developed the music that I eventually recorded for Inner City in 1976 and 1977 for that label. It was my first recording. I developed that music at The Smiling Dog Saloon. And I sold it. I was able to get to New York because Cannonball hooked me up with Quincy Jones. And I toured with Quincy, and I made some money, and I saved it up. That's how I went to New York, and I was there for four years. It all started at The Smiling Dog. The learning, the focus on specific aspects of what I was about, and it was an incredible time. I couldn't have paid for that kind of education.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It seems that being an educator is just as important to you as being a major player</i>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Smiling Dog period, by the way, that was the end of the six nights a week thing. Because it was right after that, the reason that ended because many jazz musicians started playing concerts and could make more in one night than they could the entire week playing at The Smiling Dog Saloon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, that whole mentoring process of playing on the road with bands changed. So, everybody started gravitating towards education. And I always looked at it like this; jazz musicians, the first reason they get into teaching is that they need money. So, they start teaching.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After you've been teaching for a while, you start to become altruistic. You, say things like, "Well, the music has been really good to me. And I feel I need to give something back to the music." So, every jazz musician just patting themselves on the back as they become altruistic about teaching. You start to realize you need the students as much as the students need you. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As you get older, things change. Being around young people is wonderful because they have this incredible growth energy. They want to get better. They need to get better. And you feel that energy. And that helps you maintain. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They keep you learning, and music is a lifetime learning situation. You either get better, or you diminish. So, you need to be around the people that are trying to get better, and teaching that became so important to me just relating to these young musicians. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">How do you feel about the way that young jazz musicians are coming up? It seems to me they are really learning more in academia now. Back in the day, the learning ground was sessions and playing in various bands and orchestras.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, that was the thing, that’s how we learned to be a part of a band and traveling.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, exactly.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You learn from the leaders, the different leaders that you play with. That was one of the reasons that the jazz studies program at Tri-C, that's how it got started with the idea of using working musicians. I felt that teachers were teaching, everybody was starting to play like they teach, rather than teaching like they play. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have problems with a lot of jazz education. It used to be, you learn from bandleaders. Now, bandleaders, and what is the primary objective of a bandleader? The primary aim of the bandleader is to keep the band working. So, if you have a gig with somebody, you had to help him keep his band working. So, and you learn that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then if you went to another band, it was the same thing. A guy that had to keep his band working. How'd that happen? So, if you played in enough bands, then you started to learn how you keep working. And the big factor is, how do you relate to the audience? How does the audience relate to you? How can you work on this communication? Most of the young musicians are playing for each other. That's all they have to play for.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">There seems to not be a lot of situations for these young jazz musicians to play with older musicians. In Detroit, for example, you have a lot of young musicians who graduate high school or college and immediately start their own bands.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, it's a kind of learning as you go situation for them. And it's almost kind of sad to see. They're coming up in a time where there's no established band, and the youngsters must rely on their own devices. I noticed there is a severe lack of professionalism. You made a reference to how they relate to the audience, and you’re right. It seems like they only play for themselves. Most of the time, you can tell that they aren't rehearsed. They don't have set lists thought out. They're poorly dressed. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They're poorly dressed. They have music on the stand. They're reading off the stands.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, so do you believe that can be corrected? If so, how?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I still teach at Tri-C, and I have what is called The Jazz Workshop. That is my student band. Now, I run this band as if it is my band. I play with it. And we play, we don't just have rehearsals; We play gigs, all right? But they have to play as if they're playing in my band. There's a lot of guys that have been in this Jazz Workshop, and they're out there playing. Many have their own recording contracts and are doing it.&nbsp; </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, you must wonder if youngsters are out to develop their own sound.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, here's the thing; first, that used to be a mandate. We're talking about stylists. So many different stylists played this music. It's unbelievable that you can tell within the first eight measures who those stylists were.&nbsp;Right, now, this used to be something that was valued. And one of the reasons it was appreciated is leaders like to hire guys that had their own thing, which gave their band some distinction, and the audience would like that.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You know, hearing something that was distinctive to the band. And of course, you had groups, like the Duke Ellington Orchestra where the whole band had its own uniqueness. But that was quite common then. It was like it was a marketing vehicle for a musician to develop his thing. So, it was encouraged.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's no way you can really teach somebody to have their own thing, you know. But you can encourage that. And so, there, if you start listening seriously to players like Yusef Lateef. I think he was great, I loved the way he sounded. Oh, there's Paul Gonzalez. He had his own thing. Of course, Coleman Hawkins, you know, he had his own thing. Stan Getz, he had his things. So, you start listening to all these different people, and if you start listening seriously enough to the things they do will become part of what you do. And the combination of these things can make up a distinctive style.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At least, that's what I did. And I think a lot of guys do that. They put together various aspects of different people and came up with their own way of doing things. And that's one way to look at it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">The youngsters that I’ve heard are serious about the music, but what I hear mostly is technique. </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right, because you can teach technique. You can teach theory. You can teach patterns. But what happens is, everybody is coming out of school, and it's all the same. They're playing the same vocabulary, the same manner. And that is the problem. There are things that you do when you're trying to relate to an audience through the band that you develop, that you cannot teach in schools. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hZA8kQFoH6o/W5kwgsF66oI/AAAAAAAABB4/CRyCWLMAmBIw7UvIkeOU6JVnzk57pyVngCLcBGAs/s1600/Ernie%2BKrivda%2Bsax%2B2013%2BWINNER%2B2005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="930" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hZA8kQFoH6o/W5kwgsF66oI/AAAAAAAABB4/CRyCWLMAmBIw7UvIkeOU6JVnzk57pyVngCLcBGAs/s320/Ernie%2BKrivda%2Bsax%2B2013%2BWINNER%2B2005.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saxophonist Ernie Krivda</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sounds like jazz education programs have some shortcomings.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where else are we to go, though? I mean, frankly, if it wasn't for the schools, I don't know where the music would be. So, you have to say that. Jazz music has kind of given up on the idea of being important music to a large part of the country, to the world. It's kind of settled comfortably into being a niche. I have a big band called The Fantasy Big Band.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The band has been together 27 years, but every time we play, whatever, the audience size is, whether it is like the thousand that showed up a couple of weeks ago at this Jazz Fest to hear us, or 75 people, or 20 people whatever the band plays it has an impact that's obvious to people.&nbsp;Why can't it impact much more? This music can’t just be some cerebral endeavor, a science project. There must be robust, emotional, and physical elements in the music. I mean, you're competing against Rock and hip-hop.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, you can't compete with that music being up on the stand dressed like a bum, you know, with reading music off a wire music stand, up there and not really having rehearsed the music well. And not thinking how it's going to go over. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There must be, I think, more effort. And one of the things I say about the music on “A Bright And Shining Moment,” it's a people's music. It's there for people to groove to, and that music came out of an educational situation. We did it a little different, mind you, but that's where it came from. So, it certainly, if something can't be taught, it could be encouraged. So, anyway, that's my two cents on that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's not the young musician's fault. It's just the situation that they find themselves in. And they're trying their best given the cards they've been dealt.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes. And there aren't a lot of people explaining things to them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's another issue, too. Nobody is telling them you know, you don't show up for a gig wearing sneakers and skinny jeans. You should have on a shirt and a tie."</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right. You try to look like you're doing something important, you know.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Right, right.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You should look like playing jazz is an important thing. And it's got some gravitas. The other thing is if you think about it for a second when jazz education first started, and I talked about this before it began to build up in the 60's we got old guys who were kind of coming off the road. And they were starting to go to school. They went to school to get a degree so they could teach.&nbsp;Now, that first wave of guys who were teaching in school, those guys were ex-road rats. Those guys were working musicians that you know, now we're teaching. So, they had a direct connection to that which made jazz musicians. How many generations removed are we from that now? It's a considerable number. So, each generation has less of a connection to the stuff that we're talking about, that happened back then.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Was touring with Jimmy Dorsey your big break? </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If it were the 1940's, it would have been my big break. But this was in 1964. And Lee Castle was running the band. He's a great player. And he played with everybody. And he had a close affiliation with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. And there were a couple of good players. But we were a ghost band, and so we were playing the hits of the Dorsey’s. And we're going around playing one-nighters. We weren't catching anybody's attention in the jazz world, really.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You know, we were just working. We were at the tail end of the big band thing. And it was the same 16 guys all the time, so we weren't picking up anybody like they started to do later. So, it was the same guys. So that was good. And it was a great learning experience. It was my first gig. I had to buy a tenor to play in the band because that was what was open. So that was a big deal. Because I always wanted to do that.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then, so I got an opportunity, and so I borrowed this and that and got a tenor. And that's when I started playing tenor. And so, it was the first road gig that I had.&nbsp;And it was the first working under a demanding leader. And so, once again, a little story here. So, Lee Castle was not a bebop guy. Tommy Dorsey was not a bebop guy. Lee Castle worshiped Tommy Dorsey. All right, I, on the other hand, was this young bebop guy. So here I am, and then once again, the leader's interest is to keep the band working.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so, to do, that at this time, the mission of the band was to recreate the music that Jimmy Dorsey and the band made famous.&nbsp;So I mean, they played "So Rare" every night. You know. The guy played that did a great job on that. But then there were various things that I had to do. There was this medley of tunes.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And one of the tunes in the medley was "Indian Summer," which is a beautiful tune. And Lee says to play the melody, and I started adding all this bebop stuff, and Lee told me again to just play the melody, and again I started with all this bebop inspired stuff. And he comes to me, he says, "Look, if you don't play the melody on that tune, I'm fining you 25 bucks."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I was getting 135 bucks a week. Next time we went to play the tune, I played the melody.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's jazz education. You're in a professional situation. You got to do what's necessary, you know. So, you must learn how to do that, or it's going to cost you money. When it starts to cost you money, then you begin to realize the importance of being able to do that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, the band wasn't put together for you to be playing bop licks.</span></i></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No, that was not the goal of the band. It was a dumb kid thing. I was 18. So that's how you learn. That's how I learned, the hard way.</span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-27985092022997030432018-09-01T09:48:00.000-04:002018-09-01T09:48:33.798-04:00THE RESIDENT ENSEMBLE & CHICK COREA AKOUSTIC BAND LAUNCH THE 2018 DETROIT JAZZ FESTIVAL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/70ae/RESIZED.terrilynecarrington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/70ae/RESIZED.terrilynecarrington.jpg" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Terri Lyne Carrington</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 2018 Detroit Jazz Festival started Friday evening with memorable performances from headliners the Resident Ensemble co-led by Grammy-winners drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spalding and the Chick Corea Akoustic Band. The sets couldn’t have been more diverse. The <span style="margin: 0px;">Residen</span>t Ensemble’s <span style="margin: 0px;">set</span> was a big shout out to the late Detroit jazz pianist Geri Allen. <span style="margin: 0px;">The set was a</span> mix of Allen’s familiar and lesser<span style="margin: 0px;">-known</span>compositions. Both Carrington and Spalding worked extensively with Allen, and were comfortable with her compositions which straddled the lines of post-bop and free jazz. The <span style="margin: 0px;">Avant</span>-<span style="margin: 0px;">gard</span>e pianist Kris Davis completed the rhythm section. Saxophonists Dave McMurray and Ravi Coltrane were the special guests. <span style="margin: 0px;">McMurray, who’s riding the success of “Music is Life,” his acclaimed debut recording for Blue Note Records, was of excellent form on flute. And Coltrane had several mic-dropping solos. The</span> ensemble did a <span style="margin: 0px;">tremendous</span> job of presenting Allen’s music although the <span style="margin: 0px;">band</span> might have been a bit <span style="margin: 0px;">too out there for the seasoned jazz purists the Detroit Jazz Festival attracts.</span> Davis fingers, however, zoomed up and down the keys as if haunted by Allen’s ghost on Black Man,<span style="margin: 0px;">” “</span>Open on All Sides,<span style="margin: 0px;">” and</span> “Printmakers<span style="margin: 0px;">”. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>Maurice Chestnut tap dancing on Allen’s “Running as Fast as You Can “was the moment most of the audience thought about on the drive home.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://9upqp16we5e1z54q2mbfyfol-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/600x600-chickcorea-2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://9upqp16we5e1z54q2mbfyfol-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/600x600-chickcorea-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chick Corea</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Corea’s, the festival’s artist-in-residence, <span style="margin: 0px;">Akoustic</span>Band—bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl--was tighter than a new <span style="margin: 0px;">suit jacket</span>. The band made <span style="margin: 0px;">a</span> name for itself in the late <span style="margin: 0px;">80’s,</span> and during the band’s <span style="margin: 0px;">hour-plus</span> <span style="margin: 0px;">set,</span>Friday evening they revisited some of the music that made the band a household <span style="margin: 0px;">sensation. The showstopper was the band’s version of “In a Sentimental Mood,” which Corea dedicated to Aretha Franklin. The band played it so beautifully I couldn’t help wondering if Franklin’s spirit caught that part of the band’s performance en route to heaven. The band received an ovation, and a second one when they closed the set. The audience was so worked up they would’ve rioted had the band not agreed to an encore. Each member played an improvised solo. Corea is the leader, and Patitucci is undoubtedly the band’s muscle. Listening to him walk the bass on “A Japanese Waltz” “That Old Feeling,” and during his encore solo, a case could be presented that Patitucci is the greatest jazz bass player of his generation. </span></span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-47440449808025055342018-06-17T19:06:00.000-04:002018-06-17T20:46:00.889-04:00GAYELYNN MCKINNEY ON THE LONG AWAITED 'MCKINFOLK: THE NEW BEGINNING, HER DAD'S INFLUENCE & MAX ROACH'S DRUMSTICKS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kwyE2ygex74/WxwTlvnsW3I/AAAAAAAABBE/hdHn6yTpy8IQjEZS_hJOypY90NMxUcQDwCLcBGAs/s1600/DMF2012_300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kwyE2ygex74/WxwTlvnsW3I/AAAAAAAABBE/hdHn6yTpy8IQjEZS_hJOypY90NMxUcQDwCLcBGAs/s1600/DMF2012_300x300.jpg" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ask the jazz drummer GayeLynn McKinney why it took her so long to record her dad’s music, she says without hesitation, she was focused on building her music career, and she didn’t want to do it by exploiting her dad’s reputation. McKinney’s dad, Harold McKinney, was a nationally renowned jazz pianist, composer, vocalist, and musicologist, and a towering cultural figure in Detroit responsible for teaching scores of young jazz musicians at his weekly workshop The Detroit Artist and Jazz Performance Lab. The pianist left boxes and boxes of his original compositions most of which was never recorded. McKinney’s daughter over a stellar music career that’s approaching three-decades has built quite a name for herself. For years, she has been the soul of the female jazz ensemble Straight Ahead, which achieved international acclaim and put out a string of hit albums on Atlantic Records. Whenever notable jazz musicians such as Steve Turre, and Benny Golson hit Detroit and need a drummer McKinney gets the call. McKinney’s vast musical acumen and versatile chops has capture the attention of music royalty outside of jazz as well. McKinney has become the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin’s, go-to drummer. Five years back, McKinney finally decided it was time to put out her dad’s music.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>Last month, the Detroit Music Factory released “McKinfolk: The New Beginning”. The project took McKinney all of five years to complete, having staged a series of aggressive crowd-funding campaigns, and assembled a multi-generational group of Detroit jazz musicians to perform her dad’s music. There’re 11 selections on the recording, and each has a different group of musicians playing her dad’s tunes. The album is wondrous, opening with a snippet of a conversation a nine-year-old McKinney had with her dad as he sat at the piano working on some music.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>I Dig Jazz caught up with McKinney recently to discuss the project, which she did enthusiastically while also reminiscing about her career, and her encounters with the legendary jazz drummer Max Roach. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">W<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hen I first talked to you about McKinfolk: The New Beginning, you said that you got the idea for it from a dream you had about your <span style="margin: 0px;">father</span> and that in the dream he chastised you because he had all this music, and nobody was doing anything with it, especially you. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Will you talk about that dream, and how it inspired you to finally do this project?</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, what's funny about that, I was on the road with Straight Ahead when I had that dream. I was in St Louis, and we had done a <span style="margin: 0px;">sound</span> check, and I had gone back to the room to take a nap, you know, take that little power nap before showtime. Michelle [McKinney, Harold McKinney’s wife] happened to be on that same show. She was singing with us. So, I went to sleep, and at this <span style="margin: 0px;">point,</span> this is when the dream took over, but it was so weird because it felt real because I was still in my hotel room. I heard a knock at the door, and I looked through the peek hole, and there was this guy standing there who looked like an aboriginal person, and he had on this white turban and a white robe. I was like wow this guy is really striking, so I opened the door apprehensively, and I'm looking at him like, "May I help you?"</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He stood there and didn't say anything, and while I'm looking at him, my father peaked from behind him grinning. I was like, “Oh my God Dad”.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He chuckled. Then he looked at the guy, and the guy stepped aside and motioned for him to come on, that he could come into my room. So, he came in, and he looked like he was about forty-something years old, and he was dressed nice. Soon as he came <span style="margin: 0px;">into</span> the room, the smile left his face. By this time, Michelle was also sitting at the desk in my room. He says, “you got to do something with this music!”, and I said, “Well I am doing something with this music, Dad.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>I'm right here with the girls, and we're playing music.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He was staring at me and I said, “What music dad?”, and he was getting ready to tell me and the phone rang and woke me up. So, I was really upset because I was like, “Oh my God! He was about to tell me”, so that was it for that dream. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then three years later, in 2009, Chris Collins came to me and said, “Hey, we're doing a <span style="margin: 0px;">family-theme</span> at the Detroit Jazz Festival this year. We're going to celebrate the Jones [Elvin and Thad] Brothers and celebrate some other brothers, and other families, so why don't you do some of your father's music? </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How much music did he <span style="margin: 0px;">leave behind</span>?</i> </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Michelle has been the guardian of this music and trying to keep it safe, you know. So, when I did that concert for the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2009, I was like okay, so this is what dad wants me to do. At that point, that's when I decided on the name McKinfolk, which I really didn't come up with because dad had this name back in the <span style="margin: 0px;">'90s</span> when I used to play with him. The original McKinfolk was me, dad, Uncle Raymond, Auntie Carol, and Michelle. Then, the folk part was, you know, whoever he asked to play on the project.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We had Regina Carter one time playing with us, and just different people playing with us. So, we always had these different musicians playing with us. The McKinney’s were the nucleus. When I got busy with Straight Ahead, I kind of stepped away from the McKinfolk.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, that made me say, “That's what I'm going to call this project. This is going to be the rebirth of McKinfolk” because after dad died McKinfolk passed with him. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This first <span style="margin: 0px;">project</span> and I didn't do any new stuff really. <span style="margin: 0px;">Well,</span> it’s going to be new to some people's ears, but some other it will not. I decided for this first project to redo some of the music that he composed in 1973. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">There are</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"> a couple of songs that have never been recorded, that he played live sometimes. One of them is called “Nostalgia,” which Michelle wrote some wonderful lyrics to. The other two was “After the Sunset,” and “Night Blues,” which “After the Sunset” Regina's playing on it, and I have Perry Hughes playing on “Night Blues”. Miche Braden is singing both of those songs because those are the ones she used to do with dad. Michelle also wrote lyrics to “White and Blue,” which was an instrumental piece that dad had, and Buddy Budson did the arrangement on “Nostalgia”.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Would you have ever recorded your father’s music even if you did not have that dream?</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's a very interesting and a good question. Honestly, in my <span style="margin: 0px;">mind,</span> I was thinking I want to make my own music. I love my father. I love his music, but I didn’t want to be given everything. I wanted to make my own way as a musician. Dad made his way and became this great person, this great and respected musician. I wanted to make it under my name, too.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Honestly, recording his music wasn’t on my mind. I was focused on trying to do my thing, so to speak, but when he did come to me in that dream, that alerted me it was something I needed to <span style="margin: 0px;">do</span>. Then when Chris came to me about the festival it became clear that I needed to do something.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>So, that's why I'm glad that whole thing did come <span style="margin: 0px;">to</span> fruition because it really was not on my mind because I was trying to focus on putting GayeLynn McKinney out there.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What were some of the challenges that you faced making the project? I know you went on an aggressive campaign to pay it because it was going to be an expensive endeavor. You have some heavyweights on it such as James Carter, the late Geri Allen, and Marcus Belgrave. </span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Honestly, I did two crowd-share fundraisers. One was Kickstarter. I started with Kickstarter I did Kickstarter twice. The first time I didn't succeed because with Kickstarter, you must raise the entire amount you're trying to get, or you don't get any of it. I must've been about $2,000 shy of reaching the goal and I didn't get it. So, then I did it again, and the second time around, I did get it, so that's what got me started. I did three songs with that first round of money. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I went away from Kickstarter and did Indiegogo because with Indiegogo whatever you raise at the due date you get to keep. So that was cool because then that got me a couple more songs done. Now I was about four songs deep with that first batch of money, but then that money was gone, so I was like, Okay. Well, I'll just keep trucking away. As I get money, I'll do a song when I can.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The musicians really did work with me. They weren't charging me some ridiculous or some outlandish price. They were working with me because they wanted to see the project get done, too. I don't know if it was for my dad or just out of love for me. I love them for it. Anyway, then, I said well, it's going to probably take me a long time to do this project because I knew I wanted Geri Allen on it, especially when I found out she was living here, and I knew I wanted James Carter on it, and I knew I wanted Regina on it. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a funny story. You know, I had tried out for the Kresge fellowship, back in 2009, and I didn't get it, and I was really upset about it. I was just frustrated. It was a lot of work, and I was like, I am not doing that again. When 2014 rolled around, that's when I said I am a spiritually motivated person, and God is always with me. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, I kept saying to myself, "I am not doing that again". Suddenly, what started as this little quiet voice, said, "Well, if you apply again you'll get it". Of course, I completely ignored that and was like, "Nope. I'm not doing that again. That was too much work. It was too heartbreaking'. I’m not doing that again."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, I just kept going about my business. Then about two weeks before the deadline, the voice got louder. "If you apply, you'll get it!" Finally, the last time I kept hearing that voice, I said out loud, "Okay!" The people in my house was like, "Who are <span style="margin: 0px;">you</span> talking to?" That day I sat down and decided to go ahead and do it, and the rest is history. Sure, enough, I did apply, and I did get it.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's a nice grant that they give to deserving artists.</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a no strings grant, which you can do what you need to do with it, and it couldn't have come at a better time because all kind of things were going on, and I needed money for, one of which was to finish this project. So, with <span style="margin: 0px;">that,</span>I was able to get the last four songs done. That's when I got Geri Allen, and during the 2014 Detroit Jazz Festival Kevin Mahogany was in town, and I had asked him to participate. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I said, "I see you’re going to be at the festival. Can you sing a song on a project?" He was like, "Okay. Sure. What do you want me to do?", and I said, "I'm doing my dad’s music. He said, "Well, you send me music." So, I sent him the music, but I ended up singing the verses, and he ended up doing this ridiculously wonderful scat solo on the song. It was cool. I did all that in 2014. Geri and James were on the same song. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, I was able to go ahead and finish it up, and then I got another blessing from a guy who’s a musician friend. He didn't make his money as a musician though. He made his money with an invention that he made. So, because he loves music and musicians, he built this ridiculously fabulous studio in <span style="margin: 0px;">the basement</span>of his house, and he did all the mixing and mastering for me for free.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who is this guy?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, I don't know if I should say his name, out loud because I think he loves doing it, but he doesn't want everybody to know. It's like, if you end up meeting' him, and going' to his house to do some work, then he'll offer his studio for free.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So that's why when I can, I'll take a musician friend of mine and say, "Hey, you should come with me and come over here and meet this guy. Then, in the process of meeting him, if you express, "Hey, I would like to record one day" or something, he'll say, "Well, why don't you come over here". That's how he operates, but he's not trying to publicize that too much.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who are some of the other Detroiters on the project?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have John Douglas, Marcus Elliott, Glenn Tucker, Vincent Chandler, Michael Jellick, Ibrahim Jones, Rayse Bigg, Vincent Bowens, Buddy Budson, Chris Codish, Cecilia Sharp, Marion Hayden, Perry Hughes, Ralphe Armstrong, Marcus Belgrave, Wendell Harrison, Alvin Waddles, Bill Meyer, and Dwight Adams.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Damn, that’s a Who's Who of some of Detroit's finest jazz musicians.</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah. I have a wide array of piano <span style="margin: 0px;">players</span> because you know dad was a pianist, so I wanted to not only get the people that had worked with him or studied under him.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>Geri, she did a little studying under him, and Glenn Tucker, who didn't know him, but I wanted him on the project because he played some stuff that sounded so much like dad. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Glenn has a gift for channeling the masters like Kenn Cox and Claude Black. Glenn is one of the young jazz musicians who’s really in tune with the masters.</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You’re right. I love Glenn’s playing, and ironically his birthday is three days after Dad's.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Were there any challenges writing new arrangements for your father's music, or playing them as he initially conceived them? I mean, did he write complicated arrangements, or was the material uncomplicated and easy for musicians to stretch out on?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His arrangements were difficult as they were, and I rearranged more of the rhythmic aspect of them, I didn't do it on all of them, but on a few of the songs. I just arranged the rhythmic feel of the <span style="margin: 0px;">song</span> and kept his actual arrangement the same, but the rhythm was different.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You also got the Detroit Jazz Factory involved with the project. </span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I did sign a deal with the Detroit Music Factory, and that was a difficult decision because in some <span style="margin: 0px;">ways it's</span> like am I getting ready to give this project away. I've been signed to a record label before with Straight Ahead, and that was not the most pleasant experience, as far as, what we got out of it. So, I was leery about the <span style="margin: 0px;">signing</span>, but already it's a better experience than what I had with Atlantic Records, and probably because Detroit Music Factory isn’t a big, huge label. It's a smaller label, so I was pretty <span style="margin: 0px;">hands-on</span> with everything.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Darrell Garrett, who's the A&amp;R guy for the Detroit Music Factory, we worked well together.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Darrell is a great music executive. He’s singlehandedly made the Detroit Music Factory a great entity for Detroit jazz musicians.</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, he's a good guy. I really like him a lot, and he's the guy that came up with the cover for the CD, which when he sent it to me, I pretty much broke into tears. Even right now, we're working well together, so I just feel like it's going to be good. I feel better about it than when I was going into it. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You said it was a hard decision, so what made you go with the Detroit Music Factory?</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I put out a record in 2006, but you never heard anything about it, did you? </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have that recording.</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me put it this way. It went a little <span style="margin: 0px;">way</span> in Detroit, but outside of <span style="margin: 0px;">Detroit,</span> it didn’t do well. That’s back when the internet wasn't quite like it is now, and I wasn't quite as internet savvy either, so I did the best I could <span style="margin: 0px;">trying</span>to push it through the internet. If I would have had actual promotional dollars where I could've gotten it on the <span style="margin: 0px;">radio</span>, gotten it in some magazines, gotten it in in places where lots of people could hear it, it would have probably done better, but I didn't have promotional dollars.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What made me decide to go with the Detroit Music Factory was two things. One, they had expressed interest in it, and I really like Gretchen [Carthartt-Valade, the owner of Mack Avenue Records] She really wanted to have the project. Number two, I thought about well, they'll have more promotional dollars than I have; and if I can be hands on and if I could stir the project into the places where it needed to be advertised then us working together could be a good thing, a good fit. So, oh you know we did some negotiations and stuff, and in the end, I said Okay. This is good. I can do this. I was still nervous about it, but at that <span style="margin: 0px;">point,</span> I had to have faith.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The experience has been decidedly different from the experience you <span style="margin: 0px;">had with</span> Atlantic Records.</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s right.</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you believe it’s that way because the folks running the label are Detroiters and they’re not so much profit driven, and they genuinely want to help the Detroit jazz musicians get their music out?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They want to <span style="margin: 0px;">profit</span> too, and so do <span style="margin: 0px;">I. We've</span> negotiated a nice deal and so if this record sells, we'll both make money. So, there is some <span style="margin: 0px;">profit-driven</span>aspects, but the difference is they're not all about making money and the artist makes nothing. They're about we’re going to push this project, so we can all be happy. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And Darrell, I really feel like he wants to see it succeed as well because it's only going to make the Detroit Music Factory look good, they’ve had some good projects under Detroit Music Factory, so the more good projects they have the more that they get put on the map and get really noticed and known as a company to be reckoned with.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kind of like Motema. Motema was a company that I hadn't known too much about, which I met the owner. She's a cool lady, and she put Gregory Porter on the map.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">At Atlantic were they adamant about how they wanted to deal with a project, and didn't let you guys have a lot of input?</i></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah. That's the thing. We didn't have a lot of input over there. They pretty much made all the decisions, and <span style="margin: 0px;">unfortunately,</span> too, we got signed at a time where there was a lot of transitioning going on. The guy who signed us, he left. Somebody else came into the picture, then the guy who was head of the jazz department, he was an <span style="margin: 0px;">older</span>gentleman, had been there for a long time, since Coltrane and them guys. He had been there since they were there, and we came in at the tail end of his time, and he died. Then the jazz department just went crazy behind that and went into chaos.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your dad had a large body of work. Are you going to do more recordings of his music?</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I want to. My goal is to take some of those pieces and have piano players or whoever wants to do some arrangements, and I'll record the arrangements, you know, just like Buddy Budson did with “Nostalgia”. That was a piano piece. It had never been a band piece. It's a piano piece, and he did such a beautiful arrangement of that song. I would've never thought of that. So that's what I'd like to do is give other piano players or musicians an opportunity to do some arrangements of his music. That's kind of like what dad was like too. He liked to hear what other ideas people would come up with.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/mckinney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/mckinney.jpg" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="450" height="262" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Harold McKinney</td></tr></tbody></table><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What was it like growing up with Harold? He was such a beloved figure in Detroit and nationally, too. I mean, all that he did musically, then as a jazz educator. , I used to sit in on the sessions that he used to have at <span style="margin: 0px;">SereNgeti</span> Ballroom on Thursday nights. I would just go in. I was the only <span style="margin: 0px;">non</span>- musician there, but he would let me sit in and just kind of listen to him teach the young musicians.</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>I told this story at the Dirty Dog. I had a special alarm clock. The alarm clock in my house would be my father. He had this sonata that he was working on for years. So, I would wake up in the morning with him working on that sonata. Meantime, my mother, who was, you know, my mother was an opera singer when she met Dad. She did opera, and she sang in productions like Carmen, and things like that, and she was a model. So, she had a little career going on when she met dad. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>I always say she got sucked into jazz, but around the house, she would be singing' some opera. So, I would wake up to some jazz sonata and opera in the morning. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></i></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That would be my alarm clock, and I would get up, and a lot of times, the first thing I would do before well, especially in the summer and before I started school I’d go straight down the basement and start practicing the drums. That was normally the first half of my day would be.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>Dad would have some kind of rehearsal over at the house with Marcus [Belgrave] and other jazz musicians. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would be either watching rehearsal sitting by drummer George Davidson's feet, right next to him, really close, which he told me later he was always worried that my nose was going to get caught up in the hi-hat cymbal because I was sitting' that close. It's just like I had to be in it with him. I wanted to see what his feet <span style="margin: 0px;">were</span> doing. I wanted to see what his hands were doing. So, I was doing that, or I would sometimes be upstairs with my mother, and a huge loud argument would erupt in the basement between dad and Marcus. I'd be like, oh my God. Mom! They are going to kill each other. She'd say, "Oh, no honey it'll be alright in a minute", and sure enough a little while later the music would start back up, but the <span style="margin: 0px;">arguing</span> was really funny because the argument would be about music.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They'd be having this heated discussion about music. So, that's pretty much what my life was like growing up. He gave me very valuable tidbits. I remember one <span style="margin: 0px;">day</span> when he had a rehearsal, George Davidson would leave his drums. He still has that kit too. It was a green sparkling drum kit, a nice kit, and he would leave it set up. As soon as he would go out that front door and get in his car and turn the corner, I'd be like <span style="margin: 0px;">whoosh!</span>, right on those drums. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would jump on the drums, and one day I said, "Dad! <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>I'm George Davidson! , and my father said, "Well that's good, honey, but I want you to be GayeLynn McKinney". So, I would say, "Okay, I'm GayeLynn McKinney". </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He taught me good tidbits like don't put myself in a <span style="margin: 0px;">box</span>. He said, "Learn all styles of music. Learn everything. Learn everything <span style="margin: 0px;">about</span> all styles. Learn country music, learn everything." </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He was like that because, in my house, he had all kinds of records. I used to sit, and just sit by the stereo and listen to the records that he had. He had some Temptations. Of course, it was a mix of mom’s stuff too. He had some Pink Floyd. He had some Beatles. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Because of that, I did expose myself to different styles of <span style="margin: 0px;">music</span> and tried to mimic as many of those styles as possible. Boy, he couldn't have been more right about not putting' myself in a box. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That was probably the most valuable advice that he gave you.</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Absolutely, and I pass it along to my students too. I tell them Look. You know, I like rap. That's cool to listen to, but hey, open your mind up. Listen to some other stuff too, because if you plan to do this as a career, you want to be able to be versatile. You'll work a whole lot more if you're versatile". </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What attracted you to the drums?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You know, I do not know. My mother said when she was pregnant with me, that I was busy. My father verified it. He said because, <span style="margin: 0px;">at</span> night, they would be sleep, and if she happened to be sleeping up against his back, he would wake up and feel somebody tapping him. He said a couple times he would wake up and say, "Gwen! What do <span style="margin: 0px;">you want</span>? What do you need?", and she wouldn't say a word, and he'd fall back to sleep. A little while later, he'd feel it again. "Gwen! Why you keep tapping me?" </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She's like, she told him, "That is not me. It's the baby." So, apparently, I was destined to do this because she said I was always moving around, always just moving. One of the reasons why she bought me that drum set was because I didn't care what I had in my hand. I was going to beat on something, on the table, the desk." </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She didn't like that part when I would have my knife and fork, and I'd be going to town on the table. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, when I was two, they bought me this little drum set, and I remember it was an orange sparkle drum set. It was <span style="margin: 0px;">really</span> tiny, and it had these little trashcan cymbals on it. Man, they bought me that, and I was beating' on that thing every day, all day.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1.5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who were some of your influences?</span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Well,</span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"> I had sets of drummers because like I said dad exposed me to so many kinds of styles. Traditional jazz set drummers were first and foremost was Max Roach because I was up close and personal with him. There’s a story you've probably heard before, where this particular day dad had rehearsal and this tall man came in and I didn't know him because <span style="margin: 0px;">usually,</span> it was either George Davidson or somebody I knew. I was like, who is this guy, and when I looked at his hands, he was carrying a stick bag. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, he sat down at our dining room table. You know kids don't have a sense of personal space, so I sat right next to him, close, right on his shoulder. He looked at me out the corner of his eye. I didn't say anything. I just looked at him. So, he didn't say nothing either, and he opened up the stick bag and laid it out on the table, and there were these red drumsticks in there, and I said, "Ooh!" </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He looked at me out the corner of his eye again, so I mustered up the nerve and tapped him on the shoulder, and I said, "Hey, can I have those sticks?" Now mind you, I'm 10 at the time, and I had the nerve to ask this man for his sticks. He chuckled at that point. He finally broke his silence and chuckled, and he said what are you going to do with these sticks?"</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I said, "Well, I am going to take them and play with them." <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>He said, "Oh you want to be a drummer, huh." I said, "Yeah". And he said, "Okay". He said, "Well I tell you what, I'll give you these sticks, but you have to listen to me first." <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>He said, "I want you to remember the melodies of every song". I said, "The Melodies?" My face was all scrunched up. I said, "Why I got to remember the melodies? I play drums."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He said, "Yeah, I know. That's all drummers think about is the rhythm. I want you to think about the melody too, because if you think about the melody, it'll help you learn the song better, and if you take solos, people will know where you are."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I said, "Oh. Okay". There was a moment of silence, and I said, "Hey, can I have those sticks?" He took the sticks out his bag, he said, "Here, girl. Take these sticks and go on."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What he didn't know was that message stuck in my head like glue, and I know the melodies of many, many songs. Like, I'll know the melody before I know the name. Just a footnote to that story, well two footnotes. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One is, when I got to be 17, this was about the time that I started reading' about who the major players were in jazz, and me and my friend was looking' at this book, and it was a picture book with a little story about each <span style="margin: 0px;">person</span>because I wasn't one to look at album covers. I just put the music on and immerse myself in the music. So, I hadn't known who these people were really, so I started looking' at this book and I'm reading'. I got to this one page, and I read the story and everything, read a little about him, and I looked at the picture. I looked at my friend, I said, "Oh my God!" </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"This is the guy. "She said, "What are you talking about?" I <span style="margin: 0px;">said</span>this is the guy, when I was 10 years old that gave me some drumsticks. She said, “Quit lying'! That’s not him. He didn't give you those drumsticks. "I said, "No, I'm telling' you the truth. This guy, Max Roach, gave me some drumsticks."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I had no idea, at 10 years old, who he was. I just knew he was a drummer, and so I was mad then, because I was like, you mean I had this famous man's drumsticks in my hands, and I didn't frame them and hang them up on the wall! I played with <span style="margin: 0px;">the</span> sticks until they were toothpicks. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That was my next <span style="margin: 0px;">question</span>. What did you end up doing with them, or do you still have the sticks?</span></span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No. I played with those sticks every day, until they were toothpicks. I said to myself, honestly that's probably what he would've wanted me to do with them anyway, you know, is use them for what they were supposed to be used for. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So fast forward another 10 years or by this time Straight Ahead is signed to Atlantic. We ended up opening for Max Roach, at the State Theater. During sound check, he was standing by the front looking at us, and I said, "Oh my God! That's him". She's got a nice picture of Max holding him when he was about one <span style="margin: 0px;">year</span> old, and it was from that day at the State </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I walked up to him, and I said, "You know, I know you don't remember me. We’re talking years ago, and <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>before I could finish, he said, You’re that little girl took my drumsticks". He said, "You're Harold McKinney's daughter. You took my drumsticks."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was in awe. I couldn't believe that he remembered that, and I managed to tell him, I said, "You know, I just want you to know that what you told me that day did not go in vain. You told me to remember the melodies of every song, and to this day I have hundreds, or maybe a thousand or so, melodies in my head."</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, yeah, back to your original question. He would be my first and foremost influence as far as national drummers. George Davidson is a big influence on me too. I told you I used to sit by his feet. Then after him later came Elvin Jones, and I loved him because of his use of triplets, and I loved to study him too. I studied him a lot. Then, <span style="margin: 0px;">of</span> course, I love Art Blakey and Tony Williams. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Do you think your parents and your dad would have been disappointed, had you decided to be a doctor, or an architect, or something other than a musician? </span></span></i></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My parents were cool. They would have been supportive of anything I decided to do, and if I decided not to go into music, they would've been cool with it, if I was happy.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">How has the jazz scene changed over the course of your career, particularly here in Detroit? Because it seems like right now there's a wave of these young cats that are playing, that didn't have the benefit to study with the likes your dad, Teddy Harris and Donald Walden and some of the other greats who are no longer with us.</span></i><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, you know the beauty of those guys is that they passed it to us. As a matter of fact, you know it's funny because for years I tried to run from teaching, because I'm a performer. I don't want to teach. I want to perform", but it was almost like it was always thrown back at me that I was going to have to teach, that there was no way that I was not going to teach. That is what my father was, and I believe that's what he intended for me to do as well. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The truth of the matter is, I have really enjoyed teaching. I love it, especially when I have students that are serious and work at what they're doing, and work at their craft. I love it! I have two students now who have done very well for themselves. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though they didn't have <span style="margin: 0px;">dad</span>, and Kenn, and Teddy, to study under those guys passed along to us, we're passing along to them, and we're making them study those guys. So, they can see where the music came from, so they can know it's not just us giving these lessons in music and sometimes life. It's these guys. This is where it came from. Look at this. Look at these guys so you know where it came from. That's why this crop of musicians that are coming' up now, a lot of them have that same <span style="margin: 0px;">diligence</span>and are really serious about what they're doing. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I will say this though. We're a whole lot <span style="margin: 0px;">nicer</span> than my dad, Teddy, Donald, and Kenn were. They were very serious. You could not be slacking and <span style="margin: 0px;">half</span> doing stuff because they would let you have it. Nowadays, kids are a little different. They're a little more sensitive, so you must be a little different in your approach to how you get them to do something. At times, I wish that they would've been able to meet dad.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-56957802378475551872018-05-11T10:39:00.003-04:002018-05-11T10:47:33.578-04:00PIANIST KENNY BARRON ON HIS AFFINITY FOR DETROIT PIANISTS, THE CHANGING JAZZ SCENE & 'CONCENTRIC CIRCLES,' HIS NEW RECORDING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ionemichiganchronicle.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/kenny-barron.jpg?w=1024" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="800" height="216" src="https://ionemichiganchronicle.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/kenny-barron.jpg?w=1024" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Kenny Barron</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kenny Barron, 74, has long been hailed as one of the finest jazz pianists around. Known for his elegant and his delicate playing. When Barron lays out on a <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">ballad</span>, for example, his fingertips glide across the keys as if covered with feathers. Even on <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">up-tempo</span> tunes when Barron is raising <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">holy</span> hell his playing and improvising are imbued with loads of sophistication. A native of Philadelphia Barron built a sound reputation with some leading figures in jazz such as James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Freddie Hubbard. If proof is needed that Barron is deserving of all the high praise afforded him over the years-- nine Grammy nominations, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz master is a taste of some of his accolades-- survey any area of his discography as a bandleader. You’ll likely find trio gems, duets with the likes of Dave Holland and Regina Carter, masterpieces with the legendary group Sphere, and some solo outings where Barron’s virtuosity is heart stopping. In 2016, Barron made one of his best trio recordings yet “Book of Intuition” with his longstanding trio, proving although he’s been active nearly five decades his chops remain in mint condition. Last week, Barron released another wonderful album “Concentric Circles,” a quintet date of mostly originals. I Dig Jazz spoke with Barron Monday morning about an array of topics dear to him such as his affinity for Detroit pianists, how the jazz scene has changed over the years, and the enjoyment he still derives from composing and recording.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’d like to start with something you said the last time you played in Detroit with Regina Carter.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You were interviewed before the concert and you were asked about your musical influences. You said you were influenced principally by some of the great Detroit piano playe<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">rs.,</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s right.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Y</span></i><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">ou mentioned Barry Harris, Hank Jones, and Tommy Flanagan. Will you expound on how their playing touched you?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I first heard Tommy when I was in junior high school. A friend of mine had this recording. I think it was either a Miles Davis record or a Sonny Rollins record. They were doing a Dave Brubeck piece ’In Your Own Sweet Way’. What immediately <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">struck</span>me about Tommy was his touch. Just the way he touched the piano. It was very light, very delicate, and very clear. That was the thing. And then, the lines that Tommy played made sense. It was like speaking in sentences. It wasn't just running up and down the scales. He actually played ideas, beautiful ideas. That was the thing that got me about Tommy. When I was young I really tried to emulate him. Hank was the same way. He played the same way, a pearly touch and just beautiful ideas.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, do you believe that kind of sophisticated playing is still out there today?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Young people are doing different things today. That kind of lyricism isn't necessarily there. Young players got other things happening. The stuff they play is maybe a little more sophisticated in terms of rhythm and stuff like that. They're more harmonic now, and not necessarily a lot more sophisticated than 40 years ago. They're still <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">melodic</span> but in a different way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Although there are some who rely primarily on technique. I won’t mention any names. That kind of <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">playing</span> leaves me cold a little bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you believe younger players are more technically driven nowadays?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I think that's just mostly among younger people. Another reason is probably <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">that many</span> of <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">them</span> have been going to school, academia and the conservatories. Conservatories kind of rely on that. That's a very important aspect to conservatories. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think it should be done at the expense of emotional content.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Does emotional content come with age?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you've lived a little longer, you got something to talk about. I think that's a big part of it. Just living longer. Then you'll have something to say.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the Detroit scene, there's a lot of good young players that are coming up. When I listen to them their technical proficiency is apparent and they can really play. They have a lot of technique, but I wonder if they ever listen to the masters because I can't hear the history of their instruments when they play.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's all part of it. For a lot of young players, they don't go back far enough. For a lot of them, the saxophone history starts at maybe John Coltrane and that's old fashion to them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Never mind Ben Webster or Coleman Hawkins, and saxophonist like Stan Getz. They don't listen to that. There's a lot to be learned from listening to older people. One of the things that we were able to do years ago is you can listen to somebody's sound and identify them. That's hard to do now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Do you think it's partly because their training is coming from academia as opposed to good down home jam sessions? </i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's just part of it. <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Definitely,</span> that's a big part of it. There's so much reliance on technique and everybody kind of sounds the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you think it can ever go back to that? Where everybody is technically literate and they have their own uniqueness, their own sound, too? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think it can go back to that. I don't know what it will take, but I think it can go back to that. Most of the stuff is academically driven. It's a different scene so it's hard to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">ask</span> a person to just get out there and try to be unique. First of all, there aren't the opportunities, so that's one thing that's missing.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There aren't the opportunities for young people to get out there and play. When I was coming up there were a lot of different bands. So many bands, professional bands and then local groups that you could play in. Those opportunities don't exist anymore. It's not the young <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">player's</span> fault they don't get that kind of experience anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What's happening here in Detroit is that a lot of the young musicians graduate high school or college and go straight out and start their own bands as opposed serving an apprenticeship in an established band.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Well,</span>again that's one of the things that doesn't happen anymore. You don't get a chance to serve <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">an</span> apprenticeship with anybody. There's a lot of experience they're missing. It's hard when right out of college, you're a <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">bandleader</span>. Leading a band comes with a lot of responsibility. You're the band leader, that's more than a person who calls the tunes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How long did it take before you felt comfortable with leading? You've played in some great bands over the course of your career</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't know what year it was, but I just maybe struck out in the 70's or 80's. I first started locally, in New York. Going around with the trio and that kind of escalated. Then after I had worked with Stan Getz, it kind of blossomed a little bit more. To where I had an agent in Europe who started booking me on European tours with a trio, which at the time was Ben Riley and Ray Drummond. We did a lot of tours. We did several records in Europe. Then after that, I had a quintet for a while with Victor Lewis and David Williams, Eddie Henderson, and John Stubblefield.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">T</span></i><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">hat's a great band.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We had fun. Back to the trio, between the trio and quintet so my trio now is Kiyoshi Kitagawa, on bass and Johnathan Blake, on the drums. We’re coming to Detroit as a quintet, we just finished last night actually at a club called the Jazz Standard in New York.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then in the </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">quintet,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> there's Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Johnathan Blake, and Dayna Stephens on tenor and Mike Rodriguez on trumpet, fantastic players.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Which setting do you enjoy playing in the most a trio or a slightly larger ensemble?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I like both. With the <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">trio,</span> I may play more standards. I can kind of go in any direction at any moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not so much with a quintet because you have horn players, and they have parts to play. Solo is probably the hardest of all for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Playing solo?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah. It's always scary at least in the beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How so? What do you find so daunting?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's always just little knots in my stomach before I play. Which is normal I think.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How was it playing with the great stylist Stan Getz?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was great. He was also a very lyrical player which I can certainly appreciate, and he had a beautiful sound. Very identifiable. That's what I'm talking about. He had <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">an identifiable</span> sound. Even my wife, who's not a musician, she can identify Stan. She can identify John Coltrane because she grew up listening to music.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did Getz approach you about joining his band?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He got my number from somebody and the first time I played with him, I actually took Chick Corea's place. Stan had a band that was playing mostly Chick Corea's music, and they called it the Captain Marvel band. It was Stanley Clark on bass and Tony Williams on drums.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">I took</span> Chick's place with that group for just maybe two or three weeks? That was kind of the beginning and maybe <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">sometime</span>after that, Stan started calling me regularly to come out to California to play. He was an artist-in-residence at Stanford University so I would go out there and play with him. Then it escalated into a summer tour with all the festivals and stuff and then full time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another of your big named bands was Sphere named in honor of the great Thelonious Monk. Was Monk another of your chief influences?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, he was a big influence, but the thing is with that band we tried not to play like Monk because Monk was such a stylist. Monk was one of those musicians who could play any standard and it sounded as if he wrote it. We had two guys in the band who played with Monk Charlie Rouse and Ben Riley, so it was a great opportunity to play some of Monk's music. They knew how Monk’s music was supposed to sound. How it was supposed to be. That was a great opportunity and it was a cooperative band without a leader.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We all shared in the responsibilities. Everybody got paid the same amount of money. One person took care of this, one person took care of transportation, so it was a shared responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I recall watching the Thelonious Monk documentary ‘Straight No Chaser’. In a scene, you, Barry Harris, and Tommy Flanagan were sitting at the piano trying to dissect one of Monk’s compositions. Do you recall that documentary and is Monk’s music really that complicated to dissect and to play?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of his melodies are there's a tune called ‘Four in One’ and ‘Trinkle ‘. Technically those are very tricky. They're like, <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">finger-busters</span>. That’s what I call them. Harmonically, it's not that complicated. Sometimes it moves in different directions than you might think, but harmonically it's not that complicated. The melodies sometimes are pretty complicated. Then the other thing is <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">that</span> sometimes his stuff is deceptively simple harmonically. So simple that it's hard to play.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you ever get any pointers from Monk? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No, I never really got a chance to really meet him. I would go see him at the Village Vanguard. I was very young and to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">me,</span> he was kind of a larger than life figure. I knew Ben Riley. He was playing with him at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But Ben didn't really introduce me to him. I wasn't the kind of person to go up and say hey how are you doing and meet him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>That Just wasn't me.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Going back to the Detroit pianists did you ever get a chance to get any pointers from Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan or Barry Harris?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yeah, with Tommy, I did a recording with him, a duo recording. Two <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">pianos</span>. That was for a Japanese label. For me, that was scary because I was playing with my idol. I couldn't play for listening. I wound up doing this gig in the 90's. I toured in Japan, with ten piano players. It was called 100 Golden Fingers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I was the youngest one. It was Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, and <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">pianists</span>like Cedar Walton, John Lewis, Roger Kellaway, and Monty Alexander. I had a chance to listen to Tommy every night for three or four weeks. It was great. I learned just from listening to him. Hank was kind of the <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">acknowledged</span> master back then. Whenever Hank played, everybody was right there <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">backstage</span>, checking him out. That was a great experience and no egos. No egos at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How fertile was the jazz scene in Philly back in the day when you decided you wanted to be a jazz musician? Did you get your act together there or did you have to go away to really understand the music?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No, I kind of had good beginnings there because Philly had a pretty good jazz scene. There were lots of small clubs where young players could play and work on their stuff. Then Philly also had dances they were called cabarets where people would bring their food and stuff and drinks. It was like a big party and so you would have to play for dancing, but what they danced to was jazz.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then there were some rhythm and blues bands, so a lot of those gigs and then a lot of little small bars in Philly I used to work at. Then Philly had two major jazz clubs. One was called The Showboat and the other was called </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pep's</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. I liked to go there.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yusef Lateef did a great recording at <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Pep's</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's right. ‘Live at Pep's’. I have that recording<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At what point did you <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">decide</span> jazz was going to be your thing? Was it early on? Had you been exposed to it as a kid?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yeah, definitely. I was definitely exposed to it. My oldest brother was a musician who played tenor. He had a whole bunch of records. When I was 10 years old I used to go and find those records and listen to them. We also had a great <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">24-hour</span>jazz station. I've never really thought about anything else. I just wanted to play music that was it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Did you go from Philly to New York? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I graduated from high school in 1960 and I stayed <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">in</span> Philly for a year. In 1961, I decided to move to New York. My brother was already there. I wound up actually meeting with a bass player from Detroit and he was living right next door to my brother. He <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">said</span>I'm hardly ever here because I'm always at my girlfriend's house. You can stay here, just take care of the rent, so I did. Rent was like sixty dollars a month or something like that. The New York scene was <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">great</span>. It was really beautiful.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How long did it take you to find work there? Did you kind of make a name for yourself right away or was it a process?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a process. I don't think anybody can just go there and sweep the city by storm. That's not going to happen. Where I was living. I lived down in the east village. I could walk to the two major jazz clubs. One of the clubs was the Five Spot and the other one was the Jazz Gallery. I happen to go to the Five Spot one night and James Moody was playing. He was playing with a great sextet and he knew my brother. He asked me to sit in. I said sure, so I played and shortly after that he hired me. That was kind of my first break in New York City and that wasn't long after I'd moved there so I was very lucky in that way. Luckily because of him, I got the job with Dizzy. He recommended me for the tour with Dizzy. That was a really big step for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Has there ever been a period where it got so bad or so difficult to make a living as a musician that you wanted to quit and pursue something else?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I stayed with Dizzy for four years. I quit, and it was kind of an impulsive thing. I had just tied the knot and then my wife was pregnant with our second child. I wanted to stay in town for a while, I didn't want to travel anymore. Being young, I didn't really save any money. That was a really dumb move, but we got through it. I thought about a day job. I just didn't know what kind of day job I wanted. I'd actually got some applications for airlines and stuff like that. Luckily, I didn't have to do any of that. By that time, I was living in Brooklyn and it turned out Freddie Hubbard lived right around the corner from me. He started calling me to work with him. That was also another great neighborhood in Brooklyn. Pianist Wynton Kelly lived in the neighborhood so did Cedar Walton. It was great. Anyway, I started working with Freddy, which spared me having to get a day job. He came along at the perfect time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A good piano player can always find work.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can, but there are other variables. One of the things that I wish, which unfortunately today a lot of musicians aren’t aware of. Taking care of business. Showing up at a gig on time stuff like that. That's a very, very important part of it, too. You can play your butt off, but if you're not responsible, nobody's going to call you.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You have a new album coming out ‘Concentric Circles’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It came out Friday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Will you talk about the album and how it ranks among your other albums?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Well,</span>it's a quintet date and it's the same group I’m coming to Detroit with. I'm very happy with it. It's a great band, they really play and they're very energetic and have a lot of fire. The music is primarily originals. I'd say it's about 80% or more. On every <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">record,</span>I do a Monk piece so this record I did a solo. I did ’Reflections,’ one of his ballads. I did a Lenny White composition called’ L's Bop,’ which came out really good. I've very happy with the recording.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8G7xWxS0XI4/WvWmUiLRlgI/AAAAAAAAA_0/Mo6tudiAdn0TmUtFXMsisMqbiyWs5s2VACLcBGAs/s1600/KennyBarronQuintet_ConcentricCircles_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8G7xWxS0XI4/WvWmUiLRlgI/AAAAAAAAA_0/Mo6tudiAdn0TmUtFXMsisMqbiyWs5s2VACLcBGAs/s320/KennyBarronQuintet_ConcentricCircles_cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you still derive a lot of enjoyment from recording and composing music? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I still look forward to it. Every time we record, it's a chance to document where we are at a particular time, but also it's just <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">great</span> and inventive to hear your music played well by great people. That's a big incentive. It keeps me composing and then working and trying different things.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you ever have periods where you go back and listen to recordings that you did in the 60's or the 70's?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yeah, and usually when I do, I'm just like God, that sounds horrible. You listen to yourself and you always hear what you could have done better.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">T</span></i><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">hey say that's growth though when you look back and you can say, "Yeah, if I'd have played that note it would have been that much better" or whatever.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Y</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">eah, that is growth. Learning what not to do. What not to play.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How has the jazz scene changed</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, it's changed quite a bit. The number of places to play first, that's a big change. When I was with Dizzy we were guaranteed to work 40 weeks out of the year and most of that was on the road traveling in the states. One of the big differences for us is that you would work in a club, let's say we would go out to California and work at the Jazz Workshop or in San Francisco, but you're always in a club for two or three weeks as opposed to two or three nights. Two or three weeks in San Francisco then you go down to LA and do three weeks at the Lighthouse. We were away a lot. One of the things that happened was that there were more clubs. Many more clubs from New York to the Midwest.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were even a couple clubs down in the south. In Atlanta. Clubs in Atlantic City. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Detroit I used to go hit the Minor Key, and we played Baker’s a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Then they had a whole thing on the west coast. Seattle, Portland all the way down to San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. All of those places we would play for two to three weeks. It was great. That doesn't exist anymore, so you can't book a tour. It's very hard to book a tour in the United States. Unless you're just doing one-nighters. So that's one of the big differences. Just the sheer number of. That doesn't exist anymore. I kind of miss that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The other thing is that most of the jazz festivals now aren't jazz festivals anymore. That's kind of a downer. I look at some of the international jazz festivals that like Montreux jazz festival. That festival is down to jazz night. Some of the big jazz festivals may have Elton John as the headliner. He's nowhere near being a jazz artist. I actually understand the necessity for selling tickets. I do understand that, but they'll spend a million dollars on Elton John.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That kind of bums me out and then the fact that you won't find a blues festival hiring jazz artists at all. Rock festivals they're not going to hire me. That kind of turns me off a little bit, but then there <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">are some</span> good and positive changes. There are a lot of young players doing different things. Trying to widen the audience. <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Hopefully,</span> that'll work.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Are you speaking about artists like Robert Glasper who's created a hybrid between jazz and <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">hip-hop</span>?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I mean I don't necessarily agree, but I've heard Robert play in a <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">trio</span>setting and he's an incredible musician, Everybody's got a family you got to make money. I do understand that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I figured that was a part of it. Once they get a taste of that R&amp;B and that Rock money it's hard for them to come back to jazz.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, I've seen him win a Grammy so the focus may be there. Which I get. I understand.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the most part, are you happy with the level of new talent that's out there?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh yeah! The musicianship is incredible. Do you know Gerald Clayton?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I love Gerald’s playing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He studied with me at Manhattan School of Music. He's <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">an incredible</span>player. I love that boy. There's another young guy, he's from New Orleans, Sullivan Fortner. He's seriously bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Absolutely.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">taught Jon Batiste. He was one of my students too. Batiste has always been more of an entertainer. That's his thing. I remember when he did his senior recital at Juilliard. He did a second-line thing at the end. It was fun, but he's got that entertainer thing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Last</span> question. You're regarded as one of the best jazz <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">pianists</span> in the history of the music, so if a young player came to you and asked, ‘Mr. Barron, what can I do to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">achieve</span> what you achieved and even more.’ what advice would you give him or her?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That's hard to say. Thirty years ago, I would have said just hang out, practice. I know <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">there are</span> some good students coming out of college. What are they going to do though? Everybody's not going to be able to play. Everybody won't be able to earn a living playing music, but if that's what they want to do then, they have to practice and they have to play. You could practice forever, but you have to play.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The music is basically a social thing. It's a group effort. You have to play with people, and you somehow have to <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">play </span>with people better than you. Who’re all matured and so that you can learn from them. You find all these people coming out of jazz, graduating from college and are band leaders. It's so easy to make a record now. You can pretty much do it yourself in your living room. Years ago, people actually had to seek you out. The best advice would be to just practice, listen, and play. Those are the main things.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br /><br /><b>The Kenny Barron Quintet plays Paradise Jazz Series at Orchestra Hall Saturday May 12th 2018-8:00 pm Special guest saxophonist Melissa Aidana (3711 Woodward Ave 48201 Detroit, MI 313-576-5111)</b></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-23474152290009762782018-04-21T09:42:00.000-04:002018-04-21T09:43:47.230-04:00SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CONCERT HEAVY ON ORIGNALS, LIGHT ON DAVIS' CLASSICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.purdue.edu/convocations/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SFJAZZ_1280x620_New-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="800" height="155" src="https://www.purdue.edu/convocations/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/SFJAZZ_1280x620_New-1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">SFJazz Collective</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The SFJazz Collective has played the Paradise Jazz Series at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall twice. The collective doesn’t market itself as an all-star ensemble, but there isn’t a better way to characterize it. Anyway, the first time out the collective presented the music of Michael Jackson. As I listened to the collective run through some of Jackson’s greatest hits, I recalled trumpeter Wynton Marsalis words there’s nothing sadder than jazz musicians playing funk/pop music. I’m not suggesting the collective’s first go around in Detroit was a flop. That evening the original tunes the collective performed brilliantly. Friday evening, the collective returned to the Paradise Jazz Series. This time out, the collective was supposed to present an evening of the music of jazz icon Miles Davis, or the concert was advertised as such. The collective instead performed mostly originals from ensemble members --Sean Jones, David Sanchez, Robin Eubanks, Warren Wolf, Edward Simon, Matt Penman, Obed Calvaire, and Miguel Zenon--<span style="margin: 0px;">,</span> which I surmised was a little disappointing for those of us expecting to experience an hour-plus of Davis’ classics. (For the sake of fairness to the organizers of this wonderful, long running jazz concert series, the goal is not to satisfy or meet this reviewer's expectations.)The concert opened well enough with “Tutu,” a composition immortalized by Davis but written by the great bassist Marcus Miller. Next, the collective played a gorgeous version of Davis’ “So What,” and from there the <span style="margin: 0px;">collective</span> performed originals such as Penman’s “June for June,” Sanchez’s “Leaving the Questions,” and Simon’s “United Venezuela”. The originals served up during the concert were excellently rendered, and there was some mic dropping moments from Calvaire and Sanchez, particularly Calvaire, who has a funk drummer streak. His drumming was over the top, but midway through his solos on Wolf’s “Give the Drummer Some,” the audience roared. During the second set, the collective performed Davis' "Nardis," and a modernized version of "Bitches&nbsp; Brew". I can only speak for myself in that I wanted to hear more of Davis’ music. Honestly, midway through the concert, I felt short-changed, but I remained somewhat hopeful that if the collective were summoned for an encore it would send the audience home with a Davis gem. At the end of the concert, the collective received an ovation, returned to the stage for an encore, and sent&nbsp; the audience off with another original.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-59627319086643838542018-04-01T20:31:00.000-04:002018-04-01T20:31:34.271-04:00JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA OFFERS LACKLUSTER TAKE OF CHICK COREA'S 60's &70's CLASSICS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://arts.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Chick_Corea-portrait-2014-3-2-1-1140x600-1024x539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="800" height="168" src="https://arts.byu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Chick_Corea-portrait-2014-3-2-1-1140x600-1024x539.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Chick Corea</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the jazz <span style="margin: 0px;">pianist,</span> Chick Corea 2017 was a big year. The 22 time Grammy winner turned 75, and he celebrated by touring nationally and internationally. There was an unforgettable set at the Paradise Jazz Series in Detroit with Corea hitting with drummer Brian Blade and bassist Eddie Gomez. The year-long celebration ended in a month residency at the Blue Note club where Corea reunited with many of his former bandmates. As for residencies, Corea is still at it. Currently, Corea is running the streets with the <span style="margin: 0px;">famed</span> Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. They played a 90-minute set Saturday evening at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI, the orchestra’s annual concert for the University Music Society. On paper, the pairing of one of jazz’s greatest pianist with arguably the best jazz orchestra working is a win-win. But overall, the concert was lackluster. The orchestra rehashed some of Corea’s well-known compositions from the 60’s and 70’s with key members of the orchestra such as saxophonists Sherman Irby, Ted Nash, and Victor Goines, and trumpeter Marcus Printup writing arrangements. The concert opened with “Armando Rhumba” followed by “Wigwam,” “Litha,” ”Inner Space,” and “Windows”. Corea was in excellent form the entire concert and seemed genuinely elated to be revisiting <span style="margin: 0px;">compositions</span> he had in storage for decades. Although there was fine soloing by Henriquez on the opener and Nash when the zoom lens was <span style="margin: 0px;">cast</span> on him, Corea didn’t have very much chemistry with the orchestra. The orchestra seemed <span style="margin: 0px;">off-kilter</span> as if they had been on this tour too damn long and had finally run out of gas. You have to question if any of the orchestra’s lackluster-ness was because of the absence of the orchestra’s leader trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who was off somewhere tending to other obligations. The orchestra’s engine drummer Ali Jackson, and trombonist Vincent Gardner were absent, too. The JLCO <span style="margin: 0px;">University Music Society’s</span> annual concert normally sticks to your ribs for days after, always serving up some noteworthy moments and a bunch of unforgettable solos. Sadly, this time around chance <span style="margin: 0px;">is</span>many who attended will be hard pressed to find anything noteworthy to brag about this concert in the coming days.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-45637891782458231382018-02-11T12:47:00.000-05:002018-02-11T12:47:51.406-05:00JASON MORAN'S BIG BANDWAGON PAID TRIBUTE TO MONK AT PARADISE JAZZ SERIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ace_hotel_dev.s3.amazonaws.com/images/Jason_Moran_photo_by_Clay_Patrick_McBride_907_ACE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="600" height="307" src="https://ace_hotel_dev.s3.amazonaws.com/images/Jason_Moran_photo_by_Clay_Patrick_McBride_907_ACE.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jazz pianist Jason Moran</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Blue Note recording artist pianist Jason Moran inarguably has one of the most inventive minds in contemporary jazz. Never one to think inside the box. Moran was in Detroit Friday evening part of the Paradise Jazz Series. In a 70 minute set, Moran paid tribute to the iconic jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, who would’ve been 100 last year. The concert wasn’t a run-of-the-mill tribute. Moran included video and audio footage of Monk speaking about his life and his work, which made it appear as if Monk’s spirit was on the stage with Moran’s band. Moran also included some biographical information about himself and his affinity for Monk’s legacy. For the tribute, Moran turned his longstanding trio Bandwagon into an octet, and the band performed cuts from Monk’s classic 1959 album “Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall”. Moran opened with a solo rendition of “Thelonious”. Then he brought out his band saxophonists JD Allen and Immanuel Wilkins, bassist Tarus Mateen, drummer Eric McPherson, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, trombonist Frank Lacy, and tuba player Bob Stewart. Many noted jazz musicians the world over have tried their hands at Monk’s music with varying degrees of success. Moran has an intimate understanding of Monk’s work as if Monk set Moran down and explain the inner workings of his music point by point. All concert long, Moran started the music as Monk originally conceived it. Then Moran added his own splashes of brilliance and color via myriad tempo, rhythmic, and mood changes. There’re <span style="margin: 0px;">crowd-pleasing</span> solos by Lacy, Allen, <span style="margin: 0px;">and</span> McPherson throughout the performance. The moments of the concert that most likely played over and over in the audience’s heads driving home were the band’s reworking of “Little Rootie Tootie,” and “Crepuscule with Nellie”. Near the end of the latter cut, the band turned Monk’s tribute to his wife into a blues. The unfortunate thing about the evening was the house was only half-full owing to the nine inches of snow that hit Detroit and the surrounding counties. The people who chose to stay home missed one of the best <span style="margin: 0px;">concerts</span> in the Paradise Jazz Series’ recent history. Even Moran’s encore was outside the box. The band marched through the crowd, leading the crowd into the lobby where the band played an encore. Afterwards, Moran mingled, signed autographs, and snapped selfies as if anxious to greet each concert goer who braved the inclement weather to experience his performance.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-14336835660101427672017-12-17T16:18:00.000-05:002017-12-17T16:18:01.994-05:00GLENN TUCKER, DAVE LIEBMAN AND JOE LOVANO, & SEAN JONES TOP I DIG JAZZ'S BEST JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3922858979_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3922858979_10.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Abundances </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Glenn Tucker Poly Fold</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Currently, there are many young jazz musicians in Detroit making a name for themselves. Detroit has a rich jazz tradition, and the young players are doing an admirable job of keeping that tradition going. My personal favorite is pianist Glenn Tucker, a graduate of the University of Michigan. To date, Tucker has three terrific albums available, the newest being “Abundances”. The album is comprised of nine originals and one oldie but goodie, and the album shows Tucker has grown considerably as a session leader and a composer. You can hear a lot of history in his playing, and he swings harder than a hypnotist timepiece. Tucker is in sound company with bassist Marion Hayden and drummer George Davidson.</span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></b><a href="http://www.resonancerecords.org/_img/covers/HCD-2030-l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.resonancerecords.org/_img/covers/HCD-2030-l.jpg" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Compassion</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano Resonance Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano are two of the greatest saxophonist working these days. For “Compassion,” a wonderful sort of love letter if you will to the iconic saxophonist John Coltrane, Liebman and Lovano pooled their chops. “Compassion” is one of the finest Coltrane tribute album ever recorded. Liebman and Lovano appeared to be possessed by Coltrane’s spirit throughout this session, blowing new life into some of Coltrane’s signature tunes such as “Equinox,” “Reverend King,” and “Central Park West/Dear Lord.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/592f32ed6b8f5b3f624bfb9f/592f4176e58c62fee2ab43c8/5934c10746c3c4bfed66f1d3/1496629653904/Sean_Jones_inset_500x500.jpg?format=1000w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/592f32ed6b8f5b3f624bfb9f/592f4176e58c62fee2ab43c8/5934c10746c3c4bfed66f1d3/1496629653904/Sean_Jones_inset_500x500.jpg?format=1000w" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" width="320" /></a><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Sean Jones <span style="margin: 0px;">Live</span> From Jazz at the Bistro </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Sean Jones Mack Avenue Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This recording is trumpeter Sean Jones’ first live date, and it shows Jones and his longstanding band drummer Obed <span style="margin: 0px;">Calvarie</span>, saxophonist Brian Hogans, pianist Orrin Evans, and bassist Luques Curtis in excellent form. For my money, this is the tightest unit in jazz currently. If you demand proof check out “Art’s Variable,” <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>“The Ungentrified Blues,” and “BJ’s Tune”. If you aren’t convinced after listening to those cuts, something might be wrong with your ears.</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><br /><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5197d3a7e4b0f50f41c2e3ca/t/5978ffff6f4ca32b64d9d151/1501102233452/DREAMS+AND+DAGGERS" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5197d3a7e4b0f50f41c2e3ca/t/5978ffff6f4ca32b64d9d151/1501102233452/DREAMS+AND+DAGGERS" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Dreams and Daggers </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Cecile McLorin Salvant Mack Avenue Record</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Wonder if jazz vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant has set some sort of jazz record. She’s put out three albums in her still young career and each has been nominated for a Grammy. The latest is “Dreams and Daggers,” a perfectly wrought live two-disc recording with Salvant alternating between two <span style="margin: 0px;">award-winning</span> jazz pianists her longstanding musical director Aaron Diehl and Sullivan Fortner. This is a flawless outing with Salvant’s voice covering you like a warm blanket on each track.</span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0004/231/MI0004231322.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0004/231/MI0004231322.jpg?partner=allrovi.com" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Radio Flyer </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">JD Allen Savant Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Tenor saxophonist JD Allen has been on a roll populating the planet with a new release yearly for the past decade. Allen new offspring is a fine album of original compositions “Radio Flyer”. Allen like to stick with what works running with bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston. Here Allen added guitarist Liberty Ellman. In the past, when Allen has included a new player to the mix, the player seemed out of place. On “Radio Flyer, “however, Ellman fits comfortably. It appears throughout this excellent date Allen <span style="margin: 0px;">made</span>the album as a showcase for Ellman’s chops.</span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://news.theurbanmusicscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Christian-McBride-Bringin-It.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://news.theurbanmusicscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Christian-McBride-Bringin-It.jpg" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="597" height="320" width="317" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Bringin' it</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Christian McBride Big Band Mack Avenue Records</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">At some point soon, a conversation should be had if jazz bassist Christian McBride owns the best jazz big band around. Some industry insiders think so because “Bringin’ It “has garnered the big band its second Grammy nod. That aside, “Bringin’ It” is a wonderful album with the band getting buck ass wild on numbers such as “Thermo,” “Full House,” “Mr. Bojangles,” and “Used ‘Ta Could”.</span></div><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/812SFXkqFFL._SL1200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/812SFXkqFFL._SL1200_.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">That Feelin’ </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mike Ledonne the Groover Quartet with Vincent Herring Savant Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">It’s almost impossible to make less than an extraordinary album with a band that includes saxophonist Eric Alexander, drummer Joe Farnsworth, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and with the incomparable organist Mike Ledonne in the driver’s seat. This is one of those grooving high jazz albums that will give your spirit <span style="margin: 0px;">goosebumps</span>. </span><br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://news.theurbanmusicscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Johnny-ONeal-In-The-Moment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://news.theurbanmusicscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Johnny-ONeal-In-The-Moment.jpg" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="800" height="287" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">In</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"> the Moment </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Johnny O’Neal Smoke Session Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Jazz pianist Johnny O’Neal is a star on New York’s jazz scene, and at this stage of his hall of fame <span style="margin: 0px;">career,</span> O’Neal is making some of his best music. “In the Moment” is his new masterwork and it proves track after track his chops are still in mint condition. The album has a whopping 16 tracks with O’Neal singing and swinging like hell, and there’s some fine trumpet work by the great Roy Hargrove.</span><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="290" src="https://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/52844993?wid=290&amp;hei=290&amp;qlt=70&amp;fmt=pjpeg" /></div><div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">To Love and Be Loved </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Harold Mabern Smoke Session Records</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">At 81 jazz <span style="margin: 0px;">pianist,</span> Harold Mabern still plays the piano as if he has four hands. “To Love and Be Loved” is the kind of no-holds-barred jazz album Mabern has been making for decades. Each number on the album is infused with Mabern’s youthful exuberance. And some of his sidemen bassist Nat Reeves, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, and saxophonist Eric Alexander behave as if they’re happy as fuck to be swinging with the old guy.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NSg24Gk0L._SY355_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NSg24Gk0L._SY355_.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Cerulean Canvas </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Sherman Irby &amp; Momentum Black Warrior Records</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Saxophonist Sherman Irby is best known as the lead alto chair for the famed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Sherman moonlights as a session leader, and Irby has eight stellar jazz albums on the market. Irby’s newest “Cerulean Canvas” may rank among his finest, showing Irby is in the same league as alto greats such as Johnny Hodges and Cannonball Adderley. There’s some wonderful playing by pianist Eric Reed and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The cuts on “Cerulean Canvas” most likely to stick to your ribs are “Blues for Poppa Reed,” John Bishop Blues,” and “Smile Please”.</span><br /><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-73434345560377790032017-11-20T18:39:00.001-05:002017-11-20T22:55:49.818-05:00A TRIBUTE FOR BARITONE SAXMAN, ALEX HARDING, FIT FOR A KING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://felaonbroadway.makemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/harding.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://felaonbroadway.makemighty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/harding.jpeg" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Baritone saxophonist Alex Harding</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The baritone saxophonist Alex Harding has finally returned to his native Detroit after many years on the road working <span style="margin: 0px;">with marquee</span> jazz acts such as of Julius Hemphill, the Mingus Big Band, and Roy Hargrove, and becoming a constant force on New York’s jazz scene where his reputation as a top commodity was cemented years ago. To celebrate <span style="margin: 0px;">Harding's homecoming,</span>an organization called Celebrate Detroit, run by jazz supporter Rev. Daniel <span style="margin: 0px;">Aldridge</span>, threw a two-hour tribute for Harding at the St. Matthew’s &amp; St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church Sunday afternoon that was fit for royalty. The tribute was hosted by the popular jazz radio personality Maxine Michaels, and Harding performed with three of his <span style="margin: 0px;">groups,</span> opening the program with a terrific duo with drummer Leonard King, who played brilliantly on each number he soloed on. Next Harding played with a quartet trombonist Vincent Chandler, bassist Rocco Popielarski, and King again on drums. The quartet cooked on a mix of originals and standards such as Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence” and Horace Silver’s “Peace”.<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>On those cuts, Harding’s and Chandler’s virtuosity as soloists were on full display. Harding has a <span style="margin: 0px;">gorgeous</span> tone on the baritone, and he has a knack for making the horn sound, at any given moment, like a tenor sax. At key moments of the concert, Harding appeared to have channeled the ghosts of baritone sax Gods Pepper Adams and Harry Carney, clearly two of Harding’s chief influences. Harding and Chandler on the frontline proved to be the perfect match. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Chandler is unquestionably among the top tier trombonist in jazz, proving that when the zoom lens was put on him. <span style="margin: 0px;">In</span> the second set, Harding performed with his Organ Nation trio drummer Djallo Dakate and the always soulful organist Jim Alfredson. Alfredson had his organ howling and the church walls sweating. Harding closed the program by calling back on stage all the musicians, and letting them run buck wild on the Meters’ classic “Cissy Strut”. The musicians showed out on that number. It was questionable if the musicians had forgotten they were in a church. Harding ended with a touching original “Spirit Take My <span style="margin: 0px;">Hand” that</span> he composed for his deceased grandmother and father. The two-hour concert was flawless with each musician playing as if it was their last performance on earth. It’s encouraging when an organization such as Celebrate Detroit recognize accomplished Detroit jazz musicians while they’re still alive and swinging.</span> </span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-31703601916313917382017-11-18T17:04:00.000-05:002017-11-18T17:04:52.671-05:00THE LEGENDARY COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CONCERT HEAVY ON SWING & THE BLUES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.uco.edu/press/CountBasie01.14/Count%20Basie_submitted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="320" src="https://media.uco.edu/press/CountBasie01.14/Count%20Basie_submitted.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TLCBO's director Scotty Barnhart</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The iconic big band leader Count Basie </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">started</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> his orchestra 82 years ago. The orchestra quickly became known for presenting </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">high-grade</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">swing and blues. The orchestra is still touring with trumpeter Scotty Barnhart at the helm, and the orchestra is currently packed with solid jazz musicians such as pianist Bobby Floyd, trumpeter Kris Johnson, and longtime member’s trumpeter Michael Williams and saxophonist Doug Miller. Friday evening The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, as it’s presently known, played the Paradise Jazz Series at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall, the first time in a decade. Before the concert started, Barnhart told the </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">near-capacity</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> audience November 17</span><sup><span style="font-family: inherit;">th,</span></sup><span style="font-family: inherit;">72 years ago the Basie orchestra played a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">week-long</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">engagement at </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Orchestra Hall</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. To sort of commemorate that time in Detroit’s jazz </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">history, the</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">LCBO</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> performed some songs featured during that engagement. The </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">LCBO</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> remains true to the formula that made it legendary, which is swinging until the audience feet are sore and their souls are throbbing. The concert had plenty of mic dropping moments. Topping the list </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the orchestra’s reimagined version of Stevie Wonder’s classic “My Cherie Amour,” and deep into the first set guest vocalist Brianna Thomas joining the orchestra for two numbers. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thomas'</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> voice </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">fit</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">s </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">comfortably</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> in a large ensemble setting. And her voice seems handcrafted for belting the blues. Thomas didn’t get much airtime. Thomas only sang four songs. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It would</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">’ve been heavenly to listen to her sing the entire concert. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The LCBO</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> swung below sea level all evening, performing many goodies from Basie’s repertoire such as Frank Foster’s “Who Me,” ”Brand X,” “Back to the Apple,” and “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be”.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The featured soloists </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">were</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> wonderful, particularly saxophonist Doug Miller, and Doug Lawrence. Barnhart contributed some choice solos, too. Not only is Barnhart an exceptional leader he’s also one helluva trumpeter.</span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-43597081367071741072017-10-21T17:27:00.000-04:002017-10-21T17:27:45.413-04:00TEEN SENSATION, JOEY ALEXANDER, OPENS THE 2017-2018 PARADISE JAZZ SERIES WITH A WONDERFUL SET OF STANDARDS & ORIGINALS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pi.tedcdn.com/r/pe.tedcdn.com/images/ted/477dce13c616ab15aaba74c9a04b01d35b8fb2bb_254x191.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="191" data-original-width="254" src="https://pi.tedcdn.com/r/pe.tedcdn.com/images/ted/477dce13c616ab15aaba74c9a04b01d35b8fb2bb_254x191.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Joey Alexander</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As his story goes, pianist Joey Alexander started teaching himself to play jazz at age six. At age 10, Alexander caught the attention of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and Marsalis hired him for a few concerts as a guest soloist with the prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Alexander is 14 now. He’s cut three jazz albums “My Favorite Things,” ”Countdown,” and the recently released “Joey. Monk. Live!”. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alexander has</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> been featured on 60 Minutes and in reputable music magazines such as Rolling Stone and JazzTimes. Besides the media hype, Alexander has earned three Grammy nods, and he's currently busy touring the globe. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alexander’s opening set Friday event at the 2017-2018 Paradise Jazz Series at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall was more proof the praise lavished on him&nbsp; in his very short career has been well-deserved. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alexander is what mystics the world over regard as an old soul possessing a young person’s body. I’ve attended the Paradise Jazz Series for 20 years now and never have I experienced a crowd roar like they roared after Alexander’s solos. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The concert was a double-bill with drummer/vocalist Jamison Ross opening for Alexander. Ross, best known as an </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A-list</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> sideman for such jazz notables as Johnathan Batiste, Carmen Lundy, and Christian McBride, stretched out on a number of his originals and got the crowd oiled up for Alexander’s hour-plus rundown of familiar standards and some of his original compositions. Alexander </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">open</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">ed with Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence,” immediately demonstrating an elder’s command of the piano and a deep improvisational wit. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next Alexander and his bandmates, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., and bassist Dan Chmielinski cooked on a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">tricked-out</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> version of “My Favorite Things.” The depth of Alexander’s chops and imagination were fully exposed on his originals “Peace,” and “Fourteen”. And when Alexander soloed on “Countdown,” he played some of the solo standing on his tiptoes.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alexander divvied up the spotlight with Owns and Chmielinski. Both have more frequent flier miles as professional jazz musicians than Alexander. They served up one marvelous solo after the next, but at times Owns seemed to be dangerously </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">close</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">to overpowering Alexander.&nbsp;</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alexander has some areas of his game begging for improvement. He doesn’t seem comfortable talking to an audience, but surely that will </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">change</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">as he matures as a bandleader. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’ll be interesting to see where Alexander will end up musically as an adult. The audience left his&nbsp;concert Friday evening knowing they’d witnessed a legit jazz musician although he isn't old enough yet to have a driver’s permit.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-62498810422864739722017-09-18T16:01:00.002-04:002017-09-18T16:02:55.590-04:00BEHIND THE SWING NOW AVAILABLE AT INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LCYgRd3gL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="320" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LCYgRd3gL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>Proud to announce&nbsp;my first book <em>"Behind the Swing: A Glimpse into the Lives of Some of the World's Finest Jazz Musicians"</em> is&nbsp;selling well and has garnered&nbsp;some&nbsp;glowing reviews. The book which&nbsp;is&nbsp;brimming with profiles of many of today's leading jazz musicians and the very best of Detroit's homegrown jazz musicians is now available&nbsp;at&nbsp;independent booksellers:<br /><br /><strong>THE BOOK BEAT</strong> 26010 Greenfield Rd, Oak Park, Michigan 48237<br />1-248-968-1190 (A limited number of autographed copies are available)<br /><br /><strong>SOURCE BOOKSELLERS</strong> 4240 Cass Ave. #105 Detroit, Michigan 48201<br />1-313-832-1155<br /><br /><strong>PAGES BOOKSHOP</strong> 19560 Grand River Ave. Detroit, Michigan 48223<br />1-313-473-7342<br /><br /><strong>ERIC'S I'VE BEEN FRAMED</strong> 16527&nbsp;Livernois&nbsp; Ave, Detroit Michigan 48221<br />1-313-861-9263<br /><br /><strong>THE&nbsp;DETROIT SHOPPE</strong> 2800&nbsp;W. Big Beaver Rd, Troy Michigan 48084<br />1-248-816-5470<br /><br /><br />ONLINE<br /><br /><strong>AMAZON.COM</strong><br /><br /><strong>BOOKSAMILLION.COM</strong><br /><br /><strong>BARNESANDNOBLES.COM</strong><br /><br /><strong>CREATESPACE.COM</strong><br /><br />&nbsp;</div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-71640103726932901412017-06-11T10:18:00.000-04:002017-06-11T10:18:28.677-04:00STAR- STUDDED TRIBUTE FOR JAZZ TITAN, WESLEY "SKIP" NORRIS, AT NORTHWEST ACTIVITY CENTER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://image.theoaklandpress.com/storyimage/OP/20170608/ENTERTAINMENT/170609560/AR/0/AR-170609560.jpg&amp;maxh=400&amp;maxw=667" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://image.theoaklandpress.com/storyimage/OP/20170608/ENTERTAINMENT/170609560/AR/0/AR-170609560.jpg&amp;maxh=400&amp;maxw=667" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wesley "Skip" Norris</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Dear Skip,</span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Please forgive me for contacting you out of the blue. Since your death<span style="margin: 0px;">,</span> in January, I have been meaning to check in on you to s<span style="margin: 0px;">ee how things are going for you&nbsp;in</span> heaven. I figured, however, I’d better wait until you settled in. Surely, God has been keeping you busy, making jazz more popular up there. I bet God has you over for dinner a few times a week, and you have a ball, regaling Him with the stories of all the famous jazz musicians you knew. Skip, the music on Detroit’s jazz scene is still happening, and there’s a gaggle of young talent such as alto saxophonist Benny Rubin Jr., and drummer Tariq Gardner moving the music forward. I’m confident you would have loved the youngsters on the scene today. Anyway, I’m writing you to tell you about the wonderful star-studded tribute concert in your honor Friday evening at Detroit’s Northwest Activity Center organized by your friends Andrew Rothman, Ronald Lockett, Gail Boyd, and Jacques Mullins. Skip, I tell you man that they went all out. They brought in many of your favorite jazz musicians such as pianists Eric Reed and Joey Calderazzo, husband and wife Jean and Marcus Baylor, vocalists Nanny Assis, Tammy McCann, vibist Joe Locke, saxophonists JD Allen, Victor Goines, and Branford Marsalis. If that wasn’t enough the house band for the evening was drummer Bill Higgins, bassist Ralphe Armstrong, and pianist Gary Schunk. Linda Yohn was the Mistress of Ceremony. I’m not exaggerating, Skip, when I say all the musicians played their butts off. The concert open with Eric Reed. You know, Reed is capable of raising hell on the piano, but he was reserved this time out. Reed performed two selections solo. Each rendered so thoughtfully and beautifully Reed’s playing would’ve given the devil goose bumps. After Reed’s set, vocalist Nanny Assis stretched out on two Brazilian numbers. Vocalist Tammy McCann hit the stage next. Right away she let the near capacity audience know that bigger than your love for jazz was your faith in God. Then McCann opened with a gospel number sung so wonderfully that God himself would have blushed had he been in attendance. McCann followed that song with the blues staple “Every Day I Have the Blues.” JD Allen almost blew the paint off the ceiling during his set. The Baylor Project followed Allen. Then Joe Locke set the kitchen on fire with a solo performance undoubtedly one of his finest ever. Victor Goines hit right after Locke. Goines performed an original titled the “The Beautiful One<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span> Goines had the stage so hot during this <span style="margin: 0px;">number<span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>I</span> feared his clarinet would melt in his hands. Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo closed the evening with Marsalis’s original “Eternal<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span> I’d put up a month’s salary there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience when Marsalis and Calderazzo finished. One of my favorite moments was when Mistress of Ceremony Linda Yohn informed the audience all the money from the concert would go towards your daughter’s college education, adding the jazz community would help take care of your daughter. After Marsalis and Calderazzo had <span style="margin: 0px;">played</span>, all the musicians returned to the stage and performed the most fitting number of the evening “There Would Never Be Another You<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span> Skip, I’ve attended many concerts over the years. This concert – a heartfelt love letter to you -- I won’t soon forget. Every musician played as if it was the very last jazz concert on earth. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Jacques Mullins and I hugged after the concert, and he said the concert epitomized everything you were, showcasing every brand of jazz that you held dear. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Skip, you were truly loved, man. </span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Charles</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-21310091117540502422017-05-18T22:29:00.001-04:002017-05-18T22:29:24.516-04:00STELLAR PERFORMANCE FROM RISING STAR BENNY RUBIN JR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://detroit.carpediem.cd/data/afisha/o/70/d6/70d6c25419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://detroit.carpediem.cd/data/afisha/o/70/d6/70d6c25419.jpg" height="302" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benny Rubin Jr</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>Some loyal supporters of Detroit jazz came out Wednesday evening to Bert’s in the Eastern Market to hear a rising star. His name is Benny Rubin Jr. He’s an alto saxophonist, and a senior at the Detroit School of the Arts. For two sets he played with a wealth of depth and maturity well beyond his years. Of late, Rubin Jr has been making a name for himself. Many heavies on Detroit’s jazz scene have spread the word on what a serious musician Rubin Jr is. You can hear history in his playing, and as he grows in the coming <span style="margin: 0px;">years,</span> Rubin Jr will surely <span style="margin: 0px;">be compared</span> to great alto saxophonists like Jesse Davis and Frank Strozier. Wednesday was the first time Rubin Jr’s quartet – guitarist Jacob Schwandt, drummer Brandon Williams, and bassist Jonathon Muir-Cotton -- played the weekly jazz series at Bert’s run by veteran jazz concert promoter Bill Foster and photographer and jazz <span style="margin: 0px;">aficionado</span> Karen Fox. The series books a mix of known jazz musicians such as saxophonist JD Allen and <span style="margin: 0px;">up-and-comers</span>like Rubin Jr and drummer Tariq Gardner. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>The cover is ten bucks for two sets. Rubin Jr was professional at every level. The first set started promptly at <span style="margin: 0px;">7:00 pm</span> as advertised, and the band <span style="margin: 0px;">was <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>well rehearsed</span>. During the sets, the band stretched out on well-loved standards such as “Bolivia,” “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” “Take the A Train.” and some of Rubin Jr.’s originals. Rubin held the crowd’s attention throughout both sets. I would be remiss if I ignored a disappointing moment of an otherwise wonderful evening of music. Detroit’s own James Carter showed up, and Rubin Jr gracefully and respectfully asked the acclaimed saxophonist to <span style="margin: 0px;">set in</span> for the final tune of the closing set. Carter refused. Obviously, Carter is a musician Rubin Jr idolizes. What could be more hurtful than being shunned for no good reason by someone you admire? If Carter’s refusal hurt Rubin <span style="margin: 0px;">Jr,</span> it didn’t show one bit because he <span style="margin: 0px;">kept</span> on swinging. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"> </div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-28187096976311833542017-05-14T09:51:00.001-04:002017-05-14T09:59:10.909-04:00THE BRANFORD MARSALIS QUARTET FEATURING KURT ELLING PERFORMED MUSIC FROM ACCLAIMED 'UPWARD SPIRAL' PROJECT AT PARADISE JAZZ SERIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5254a888e4b0d4767400360f/t/579a9f23893fc0824c2c5a42/1469751079989/Branford+Marsalis+and+Kurt+Elling?format=750w" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5254a888e4b0d4767400360f/t/579a9f23893fc0824c2c5a42/1469751079989/Branford+Marsalis+and+Kurt+Elling?format=750w" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Branford Marsalis and Kurt Elling</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Surely, for many at the sold out Branford Marsalis Quartet’s concert featuring jazz vocalist Kurt Elling it was the first time witnessing an encore morph into a jam session. That’s what happened Friday evening at the fifth concert of the Paradise Jazz Series at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall. The band put on inarguably the best show of this season. Hell, I’d argue the best in the past five years. And the encore was damn near as good as the concert. Marsalis and his&nbsp;band pianist Joey Calderazzo, drummer Justin Faulkner and bassist Eric Revis and Elling performed music from the acclaimed 2016 album “Upward Spiral.” The two-hour swing fest opened with “Teo” from the quartet’s date “Four MFs Playing Tunes,” after which Marsalis introduced Elling. Elling was <span style="margin: 0px;">of excellent </span>voice. It didn’t take long for Elling to go from zero to sixty. <span style="margin: 0px;">Although Elling was the draw,</span> Calderazzo’s and Faulkner’s performance were the most memorable. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Faulkner played as if the ghosts of the late jazz drummers Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, and Art Blakey were having a jam session in Faulkner’s body. During his tenure with the quartet, he has become the standout in the <span style="margin: 0px;">band</span>. Calderazzo was right there with him, and it was magical watching the two trade. Honestly, when I learned of Elling joining the quartet for the “Upward Spiral” project, I had reservations if a jazz vocalist with such a distinctly beautiful voice would be a disruptive force with the best band in jazz. Elling, however, <span style="margin: 0px;">fits</span> comfortably. After the band showed out on selections such as “There A Boat Dat’s <span style="margin: 0px;">Leavin’</span>Soon For New York,” “Blue Gardenias,” “From One Island To Another,” “Mama Said,” and “Blue Velvet,” the band exited the stage to a well-earned ovation. When the audience settled down, Marsalis and Elling returned to the stage and performed a duet. If that wasn’t enough, Revis came out after them and performed a bass solo that would’ve made Charles Mingus envious. There’s more. The band then played a hot version of “St James Infirmary” This is where the encore morphed into a <span style="margin: 0px;">jam</span> session with trumpeter Terence Blanchard, <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>and saxophonist Diego Rivera joining in. At this <span style="margin: 0px;">point,</span> people <span style="margin: 0px;">were</span> dancing in the aisles. </span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-31699704585286873642017-04-08T17:50:00.000-04:002017-04-08T18:06:04.094-04:00THE JAMES CARTER ORGAN TRIO PERFORMS OBSCURE DJANGO REINHARDT COMPOSITIONS AT PARADISE JAZZ SERIES CONCERT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cafestritch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/James-Carter-e1460491922327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cafestritch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/James-Carter-e1460491922327.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Carter</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The jazz saxophonist James Carter returned to his hometown, Detroit, Friday evening with his longstanding organ trio drummer Alexander White and organist Gerard Gibbs to perform music from his current project Django Unchained at the Paradise Jazz Series. Carter has been touring the globe in support of the project, which has morphed into a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">sort</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of a tribute&nbsp;to the iconic Gypsy jazz great Django Reinhardt. Carter has an obvious affinity for Reinhardt’s work, having explored some of</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> his well-known</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">compositions on the wonderful album “Chasin' the Gypsy</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> This time out, Carter has modernized some of Reinhardt’s obscure compositions. Before Carter started the two-hour concert last night, he read off the </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">setlist</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, which included Reinhardt's&nbsp;“Hedgehog Waltz,” “Castle of Dreams,” “Melodie </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Au</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Crepuscule,” and &nbsp;“Heavy Artillery. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Carter also worked in a solo birthday salute to the great jazz vocalist Billie Holliday.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Carter performed a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">soul-numbing</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">rendition of Holliday’s “God Bless the Child” mixed with “Happy Birthday,” which was one of many highlights throughout the concert. The near capacity crowd buckled down for a night of high tier swing that only a saxophonist of Carter’s daring is capable of delivering. Carter was elated to be performing for his hometown, offering one hellacious solo after the other, and c</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">losing tunes with his trademark cadenzas. If Sonny Rollins ever relinquish the crown as the reigning king of jazz improvisation, Carter should be the first in line to receive that distinction. Carter’s sidemen were of good form as well. Gibbs </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">has been Carter’s right-hand man coming up on two decades now was</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the crowd favorite, playing the absolute shit of his Hammond B3. Gibbs is one of the top jazz organists around, and he has a&nbsp;gift for </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">working</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a crowd. Gibbs loves to clown around. For example, last night there was a moment during a solo where Gibbs played the organ with his chin, and on “Impromptu” he did sort of a tap dance on the paddles of the organ that drove the audience nuts. White has been with the trio for a few years now. He’s the first of the current field of millennial jazz musicians from Detroit to play in a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">world-class</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> jazz band. By all </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">accounts,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> White </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">loves</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the job. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">White replaced Carter’s longtime drummer Leonard King.</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">White is a confident and a tasteful drummer. Tasteful like drummers Joe&nbsp;Chambers and the late Detroit Bert Myrick. The zoom </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">lens </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">was put on White late into the second set on “Impromptu</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> It was his first lengthy solo of the night. When he finished, it was clear, at least to me, White is the new engine that powers the trio.</span> </span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-28282194157708955912017-04-03T09:11:00.003-04:002017-04-03T09:11:57.935-04:00'BEHIND THE SWING: A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIVES OF SOME OF THE WORLD'S FINEST JAZZ MUSICIANS' AVAILABLE NOW<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-izUhXY8BF5k/WOJFwsHs9-I/AAAAAAAAA-w/ggCMPRVYhHEyfa9_1iON-8_hTLIJyU0ZgCLcB/s1600/larry%2Bs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-izUhXY8BF5k/WOJFwsHs9-I/AAAAAAAAA-w/ggCMPRVYhHEyfa9_1iON-8_hTLIJyU0ZgCLcB/s400/larry%2Bs.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Here's some&nbsp;praise about my new book "Behind the Swing" from noted authors and jazz experts Herb Boyd and James Gallert:</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">There was a time in the fifties and sixties when practically every jazz ensemble of note included one musician from Detroit, or at least one who refined his or her development in the city.&nbsp; What Charles&nbsp;Latimer demonstrates to a remarkable degree in <i>Behind the Swing--</i>more than a decade of his articles from the <i>Metro Times--</i>is that there were countless other equally proficient composers, teachers and performers worthy of wider recognition. Latimer’s book is an insight aperture of jazz in Detroit, and he embellishes that musical wellspring with lively discussions with a number of notable visitors, such as Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, and T.S. Monk.&nbsp; In many ways, <i>Behind the Swing</i> is on the beat and ahead of its time.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">--Herb Boyd, author of <i>Black Detroit—A People’s History of Self-Determination</i> (Amistad, 2017)</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">"Latimer's fine compilation pulls together both tradition jazz and Avant-Garde jazz musicians.&nbsp; His easy way with words and natural curiosity about the music he loves affords him a good starting point for interviews.&nbsp; I learned many new, interesting facts about the musicians, many of whom have been overlooked by "mainstream" scribes.&nbsp; I definitely recommended <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Behind the Swing</i> for serious jazz supporters!"&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="font-family: &quot;Calibri Light&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">--James Gallert, jazz historian and co-author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before Motown</i> (University of Michigan Regional 2001)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p><strong>"Behind the Swing" is available at amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com, and bookamillion.com</strong></o:p></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-65509981251461021492017-03-05T10:13:00.000-05:002017-03-05T10:22:12.535-05:00THE JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA PRESENTED ALL ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR ANNUAL UMS CONCERT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wac.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/cp-jazz-orchestra-wynton-marsalis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wac.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/cp-jazz-orchestra-wynton-marsalis.jpg" height="146" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Saturday evening at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, MI the Jazz at Lincoln Center put on its <span style="margin: 0px;">twentieth-anniversary</span> performance. Each <span style="margin: 0px;">year</span> the JLC Orchestra makes it a plus to offer a 90 minute presentation that’s decidedly different than the previous year. Two years back, for example, the JLC Orchestra performed works from John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, and Charles Mingus. Then the following year the orchestra deviated from its swing era and post-bop comfort zone, performing music <span style="margin: 0px;">from</span> pop giants such as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and a host of other pop greats. This time out, the orchestra celebrated 100 years of jazz music by presenting all original works from members of the orchestra. Each composition <span style="margin: 0px;">was influenced</span> by a seminal era in jazz. The orchestra’s captain trumpeter Wynton Marsalis kicked down the barn door with an original titled “The Abyssinian Mass<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span><span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp; </span>For those in attendance that might have forgotten what an extraordinary jazz trumpeter Marsalis is, <span style="margin: 0px;">his solo</span> I’m certain jogged their memories. Marsalis blew with such force those close enough to the stage could see spit dripping from the bell of his trumpet. Heck, it appeared as if Marsalis’ trumpet was <span style="margin: 0px;">sweating</span> because of the workout he was putting&nbsp;it through. At the conclusion of the composition surely the audience was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt this was going to be a special night of music. Marsalis next called out the orchestra’s bassist Carlos Henriquez. The bassist led the orchestra up and down a <span style="margin: 0px;">soul-stirring</span> original titled “Brooklyn Pyramid<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span> Before the orchestra sailed on Marsalis offered some heartfelt words for the University Music Society’s President Ken Fischer. Fischer will be retiring in June. Marsalis also offered kind remarks for jazz radio personality and WEMU’s music director Linda Yohn. She’s also retiring this year after 30 years of service to Michigan’s jazz community. After those acknowledgements<span style="margin: 0px;">,</span> the JLC Orchestra got back to business. There was wonderful music from trumpeter Marcus Printup, saxophonist Ted Nash, and a terse drum solo titled “The Drums Also Waltzes” by Detroiter Ali Jackson that would have made the late jazz drummer Max Roach blush. The showstopper for me was Victor Goines original “Untamed Elegance<span style="margin: 0px;">.”</span> Goines dedicated the number to the recently departed jazz promoter Detroiter Wesley “Skip” Norris. Goines played this number so beautifully the devil would have <span style="margin: 0px;">broken</span>down. The JLC Orchestra performed many wonderful originals, but I still believe the orchestra is at its best playing music from<span style="margin: 0px;">Duke</span> Ellington and the Count Basie songbooks and other swing era mavericks. It’s a welcomed change, however, when the JLC Orchestra deviates from its comfort zone.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-22892349201804408222017-02-19T20:37:00.000-05:002017-02-19T20:42:50.892-05:00AARON DIEHL & CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT PERFORMED FLAWLESS RENDERINGS OF JELLY MORTON'S AND GEORGE GERSHWIN'S OBSCURE COMPOSITIONS AT THE MICHIGAN THEATER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://toronto.carpediem.cd/data/afisha/o/c7/b3/c7b3da163f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://toronto.carpediem.cd/data/afisha/o/c7/b3/c7b3da163f.jpg" height="137" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aaron Diehl and Cecile McLorin Salvant</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The jazz pianist Aaron Diehl posed a scenario Sunday afternoon during his two-hour set at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, MI. What would’ve occurred had Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin crossed paths. The musicians never met, and although each </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> accomplished and prolific, their musical styles were different as night and day. </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Diehl</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">believes if </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the legends had met there would’ve been a mutual respect of each other’s virtuosity. That is the impression Diehl left during his flawless presentation titled “Jelly and George,” which featured the </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grammy-winning</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">chanteuse Cecile McLorin Salvant and pianist Adam Birnbaum assuming the role of George Gershwin. The concert was a mixing of Morton’s and Gershwin’s compositions. The interesting thing was Diehl opted to play obscure materials from Morton and Gershwin. Diehl was gracious enough to warn the audience that if they expected to hear Morton’s and Gershwin’s popular material the audience was going to be disappointed. The concert opened with Diel and Birnbaum trading on Gershwin’s “Prelude One” and “Jelly Roll’s Blues</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Diehl’s quartet clarinetist Evan Christopher, trombonist Corey Wilcox, trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, bassist Paul Sikivie and drummer Lawrence Leathers joined in on “Mississippi Mildred</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Listening to Diel and Birnbaum reinterpreting Morton’s and Gershwin’s obscure material was worth the price of admission, but what took the two-hour set over the top was Cecile McLorin Salvant. In a short time, Salvant has built a solid reputation as a foremost interpreter of the great American Songbook. Salvant isn’t big on stagecraft, but who gives a rat’s ass because her voice is so unbelievably beautiful it </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">gives</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> your soul goose bumps. Guaranteed people will awake tomorrow still thinking about Salvant’s rendering of “Wining Boy” and “Ask me Again</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Diehl’s lone moment in the sun came during his brilliant soloing on “Finger Breakers</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Diehl’s band was tight as&nbsp;banjo </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">strings</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">on “The Sidewalk Blues</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.”</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> “Jelly and George” was prefect from top to bottom. Diehl and company present a lot of </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">music,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> so an encore seemed overkill. The audience </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was so thoroughly worked</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> up doubtfully</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> they</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> would’ve allowed the musicians to leave Ann Arbor had they refused an encore. As a gesture of appreciation for all the love the audience showed Diehl, he performed three additional tunes.</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-13080182413030267862017-02-18T13:18:00.000-05:002017-02-18T13:28:29.642-05:00JOE LOVANO & BRIAN BLADE & THE FELLOWSHIP BAND DOUBLE BILL WAS A FITTING CONTRAST OF JAZZ STYLES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joelovano.com/uploads/large/JoeLovano2bJimmyKatz-1292882984.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.joelovano.com/uploads/large/JoeLovano2bJimmyKatz-1292882984.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Lovano</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano launched the third concert of the Paradise Jazz Series, and drummer Brian Blade’s The Fellowship Band closed&nbsp;it. The two leaders shared a double bill Friday evening at Orchestra Hall in mid-town Detroit where the PJS </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">is held</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Both leaders are from divergent points of the jazz spectrum. Lovano is a post-bop heavy, and Blade is, somewhat of an experimentalist. Of the two, Lovano has logged the most frequent flier miles, having a colored career spanning </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">four-plus</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">decades, and also being one of the major faces of the famed Blue Note Records for 30 plus years. Lovano has made over 20 albums. As </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">he’s proven</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> throughout his career, and which was on full display Friday evening, he’s a saxophonist who plays every single note with a sense of purpose and beauty. There’s nothing pretentious about his playing. During his </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">too-short</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> set with his current working </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">band,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the Classic Jazz Quartet – pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Peter Slavov, and drummer Lamy Istrefi—Lovano treated the </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">near-capacity</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> audience to some of his original material, opening the set with “Fort Worth</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">”.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The quartet burned rubber on that number from the start to the conclusion. Then moved into a slower tempo gem titled “Our Daily Bread</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">”.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp; </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> some fist pumping soloing from Fields and Slavov. It was Lovano who captivated playing sweetly&nbsp;cadenzas at the end&nbsp; of several tumes. The quart had the stage sufficiently preheated for Blade.</span></span></div><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Blade, one of the greatest living jazz drummers, and a key member of the Wayne Shorter </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quartet</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">is no stranger to the PJS. He’s performed the series many times with Shorter, and Blade performed the opening 2016-2017&nbsp;series as a </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">member</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> of the Chick Corea </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trio</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. However, Friday evening was Blade’s first time at the series as a bandleader. It was a gamble booking Blade’s The Fellowship Band, which has a decidedly different approach to swinging. The core PJS demographic favors bop and post-bop. That’s what that core audience have </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">been fed</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">since the PJS launched. Blade is a magician, however, and the entire set he had the audience drooling. Blade performed with only one commercial break to introduce his </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">bandmates </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler, pianist Jon Cowherd, and bassist Chris Thomas. The band played a kind of modernist swing no jazz critic has categorized yet. Blade called tunes from The Fellowship’s discography. The tunes had a recognizable formula, starting at a slow molasses thick tempo, and then midway through the band started hauling ass. Blade chops </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">power</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The Fellowship much like his chops power Shorter’s quartet.&nbsp;</span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Blade</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is inarguably one of a kind. And the success of his all too short set Friday evening was a gamble proved worth taking. Pairing Lovano with Blade was a fitting contrast that worked. </span></span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-13769653744690539162017-02-06T20:10:00.000-05:002017-02-06T20:40:13.086-05:00FAMILY, FRIENDS & DETROIT'S JAZZ COMMUNITY CAME OUT FOR JAZZ TITAN SKIP NORRIS' HOME GOING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/620223535827451904/BS6d26Gc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/620223535827451904/BS6d26Gc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wesley "Skip" Norris</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When word spread January 26</span><sup><span style="font-family: inherit;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: inherit;"> via social </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">media<span style="display: none; margin: 0px;">S</span> that jazz</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> titan, concert promoter Wesley “Skip” Norris was in a fatal car accident a collective sadness hit Detroit’s jazz community, and surely in other cities where jazz is a big part of the city’s cultural fabric. Although Skip epitomized what writer Ralph Ellison dubbed many decades ago a Renaissance man, a man of intellectual hunger, depth, and character Skip’s most recognizable and celebrated trait was&nbsp;his advocacy&nbsp;of jazz. In all the years as a jazz journalist and jazz </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">blogger,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I never met an individual more passionate and knowledgeable about jazz than Skip was. Over the years, I would see or hear Skip at many of the jazz concerts around Detroit and Ann Arbor. On many occasions, I wondered about that dapper man in the&nbsp;audience egging on the musicians, shouting out their names at the conclusion of an inspired solo. I became formal jazz friends with Skip after interviewing him about a new concert series he was putting on at the Northwest Activity Center called Jazz at the Center, which in its brief run had world-class jazz acts such as trumpeter Roy Hargrove, drummer/bandleader Ralph Peterson, and the all-star jazz ensemble the Cookers. From that time forward, I made sure I caught every concert Skip had a hand in producing, including the JD Allen, Joe Locke, and Joey Calderazzo hits at the Detroit Groove Society concert series. And whenever, I ran into Skip at a show in town I was always a recipient of one of his bear hugs. I was sincerely awed by Skip’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz, and more so that he was personal friends with just about every jazz musician of note throughout the country. And he seemed to have a warehouse of stories. At Hartford Memorial Baptist Church Monday Skip’s family, friends, and many from Detroit’s jazz community participated in a home going service befitting a man who lived a truly exemplary and blessed life. Those who got a chance to share their experiences and recollections of Skip characterized him foremost as a man of unyielding faith. Everybody who wanted to speak about Skip </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">wasn't afforded</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the opportunity. Had they we’d still be </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the church listening. It was easy to take from the speakers that Skip was genuinely beloved. Ronald Robinson </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lockett, one of Skip's dearest friends,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">jokingly said that God took Skip from us because God needed someone with Skip’s know how to promote jazz concerts in heaven. There was jazz music during the service at the appropriate moments from bassist Robert Hurst, saxophonist Victor </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Goines,</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and drummer/trumpeter Ralph Peterson. During the remarks section of the service, another of Skip’s closest friends </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jacques</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Mullins noted </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">during the service</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the greatest testament to a man is </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">to </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">see how many people come out </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">for</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> his home going. Hartford Memorial </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">was filled</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> with people who as another speaker pointed out loved them some Skip Norris.</span></span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6597966572385872208.post-50520451732993123772016-11-06T11:28:00.003-05:002016-11-06T11:54:44.464-05:00THE JOEY CALDERAZZO TRIO'S PERFORMANCE WAS THE ICING ON A BANNER SEASON FOR THE DETROIT GROOVE SOCIETY HOUSE CONCERTS SERIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joeycalderazzo.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-BD-sliders/120629030629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.joeycalderazzo.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-BD-sliders/120629030629.jpg" height="100" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pianist Joey Calderazzo</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin: 0px 0px 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The founder of the Detroit Groove Society house concerts series, Andrew Rothman, gifted the supporters of the series with 100 minutes of high echelon jazz music courtesy of the Joey Calderazzo Trio. Saturday night, the trio closed the DGS’s 2016 season.&nbsp;Ranked by some series <span style="margin: 0px;">regular's&nbsp;</span>as the&nbsp;DGS’s best season yet. Veteran jazz promoter Skip Norris—who’s co-produced some of the DGS’s concerts—commented before introducing Calderazzo’s trio that Rothman has figured out a new way for&nbsp;lovers of jazz&nbsp;to experience live jazz. The DGS’s 2016 season had memorable concerts by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, vibist Joe Locke, and pianist Dan Tepfer. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The Joey Calderazzo Trio&nbsp;presentation was the icing on a <span style="margin: 0px;">banner</span> season. The tips of&nbsp;Claderazzo’s fingers were still smoking from his sets Friday night at the&nbsp;Jazz Café in Detroit. Claderazzo’s had to same bandmates bassist Ben Wolfe, and drummer Donald Edwards. The entire concert the trio went back and forth from unadulterated burners to heart melting tunes such as “Hope,” an original Calderazzo wrote for the late great saxophonist Michael Brecker. Calderazzo made his name in Brecker’s band. <span style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</span>Now Calderazzo is best known as the heart of the Branford Marsalis Quartet. And as a session leader, Calderazzo has put out 13 albums as a <span style="margin: 0px;">bandleader</span>. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Calderazzo is a very physical and sometimes animated jazz pianist as he showed tune after tune Saturday night. Calderazzo played every popular branch of jazz under the sun. The house was shaking when the trio played the first two tunes. I <span style="margin: 0px;">overheard</span> the guy seated in front of me tell his companion he believed the curtains were going to catch fire during Calderazzo’s soloing on “Cheek to Cheek,” and “To Wisdom The Prize. There was&nbsp;the requisite twenty-minute intermission not to, it seemed, to give the musicians a break, but rather to give the house piano a breather. If there&nbsp;was one downside to an otherwise terrific concert it was&nbsp;Wolfe and Edwards also&nbsp;globally respected bandleaders&nbsp;didn't get an equal share of the spotlight. Calderazzo was on fire and <span style="margin: 0px;">Wolfe,</span> and Edwards had their hands full. </span></div><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>Charles L. Latimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11401253942258186823noreply@blogger.com0